Does The Year Book Picture Effect You?

     Does your year book picture make you who you are? I personally hate my year book picture every year. Getting teased, made fun of, and humiliated where your whole school can see it is close to devastating. School pictures aren't always perfect, we know this. Yet we make fun of other kids, and it hurts - a lot.
     My school posts year book pictures right near the main entrance and next to the office. Every student attending the school is glued up on the wall for everyone else to see. Last year, one girl's picture looked really bad. She was so embarrassed she refused to come to school for a day or two because everyone was commenting on it. Rumors went around that she was strung out on heroin when the picture was taken, and that she was being abused at home due to the dark circles around her eyes. This one, single picture affected the rest of her year at school. Has something like this ever happened to you, or one of your friends? Year book pictures are a big deal in middle school and high school. Especially if you are well known.
     Pictures can also be a positive thing, not always negative. Year book pictures are for remembering who you were back at the time they were taken. I've noticed how much that I've changed throughout my middle school years. Now that I've reached high school, it amazes me how I've grown and changed. I look at old friends and new ones. I see kids I didn't even know went to our school. Then again, maybe other kid's may hate their year book pictures - and I'm the one looking back on them.
     Groups in high school and middle school are a big part of your life during these crucial years. We all 'belong' somewhere, or we don't.  Sometimes school pictures puts you into a group or  somewhere that you don't necessarily want to be. Geeks, Jocks, Preps, and Goths are all remembered and their picture is placed in the one book that everyone sees.
     So tell me guys, do you think the year book is a good thing or a bad thing? Everyone has their picture in it, everyone has an opinion. Should the school have the right to put your face out where everyone can see it? Or should they have your permission on which picture they use and where it goes?