Yearbook superlatives

One of the things I never accomplished in high school was being listed among the superlatives in the yearbooks. You know, "Most Handsome," "Class Clown," "Most Likely to Succeed," etc. The superlatives were determined by holding nominations in the homerooms one month and then having elections the next month.

The strangest category was "Most Talented." To me, talented meant being good in artistic endeavors, like singing, playing an instrument, acting, drawing or painting. However, during my sophomore year, I was shocked at the boy my homeroom nominated. I thought, "This guy doesn't sing or play an instrument. What's his talent?" I found out later that he was a really good basketball player. I didn't really consider that talent, but everyone else did. Interestingly, the girl my homeroom nominated was a singer (although she didn't join choir until senior year).

When we got the election slips, I saw that all the boys nominated for "Most Talented" were athletes. And it was almost the same for the girls, except for the one girl that my homeroom nominated. There was no one else from choir or band on the list. I looked back at some older yearbooks, and I noticed that one year, they separated the "Most Talented" into athletic and artistic categories. I don't know why they only did that the one time. It should have carried forward.

The two we nominated went on to win sophomore year. They also won for junior and senior years. The only thing I got nominated for during my sophomore and junior years was "Best All Around." This was the one category in which the nominations were not done by the students. If you had a high GPA and participated in school activities, you were automatically nominated. However, I was never ranked among the top five boys on the list.

During my senior year, something interesting happened. I found my name among the nominations for "Most Talented." I couldn't believe it. I was the only non-athlete boy ever nominated for "Most Talented" during the three years I attended high school. I felt like I'd actually won, except that I wouldn't get my picture taken for the yearbook. I also noticed that among the girls, there was a member of the band who was nominated. That was who I voted for. But as I mentioned before, we didn't win.

I also got a surprise nomination for "Most Dependable" in addition to "Best All Around." I lost those, too. But really, I was disappointed that no one ever nominated me for "Class Clown." I thought I was pretty funny. I guess I was the only one who thought so.

Years go by and you realize that those superlatives don't mean anything in the long run. The basketball player never went to college. I guess he just wound up working for the refinery and played on the adult basketball league in Artesia with his two older brothers, who had also been named "Most Talented" in their classes. The singer never had anything close to a music career and she became a teacher at Zia Intermediate School in Artesia.

In the end, no one you meet after you leave high school cares if you were named "Most Talented" or "Most Likely to Succeed." You find out later that the people who received the most praise in high school deserved it the least once they got into the real world.