Welcome back everyone!

Today I will be finishing up my yearbook camp coverage with a post about the last day of the four-day camp I attended at Chapman University with my school’s yearbook staff. I posted separately about my experiences during the first three days, so definitely go check those out if you haven’t already! The camp was extremely tiring but it was an amazing experience and it really allowed me to bond with the other members (both newbies like me and returners) since I knew no one except for my best friend, a returner, and one of my other best friends, a newbie like me.

Day 4 (Monday, July 22nd) had a school spirit/your school colors theme, so we were all decked out in our school gear. My school’s colors are orange and blue; I wore an orange t-shirt, navy blue shorts, orange and blue beaded necklaces, and the orange and blue cape from superhero day. Breakfast was scheduled for 30 minutes later than all the other days, so my roommate and I had set our alarms for 7:30 rather than 7:00. My roomie and I had packed up most of our stuff the night before, but we finished everything up before heading out to eat. I had waffles and scrambled eggs with a mini cinnamon muffin for breakfast, and then we headed to the common room to meet with all the other staff members. Our EICs showed us the finished theme packet that they had submitted the night before (it was BEAUTIFUL and so vibrant) and explained to us what was about to happen; we were going to go to one of the classrooms and three other schools would be there, the EICs of each school would present their theme packet to a panel of four judges and we would get critiqued.

We headed to the theme packet presentations- I was nervous and I wasn’t even doing anything! The other schools’ ideas were great, we went either second or third and I thought our EICs did a great job at presenting everything. The packet included a cover, a title page, end sheets (the very beginning and end pages), an opening page explaining the theme (aka theme copy), and four (maybe three?) spreads; this amount of work was based on how many staff members we had with us at the camp, so it was more than some other schools had to submit. We ended up getting critiqued very harshly by the judges but it was somewhat expected; they were known for being blunt, and we knew they may not like how much color and vibrancy we wanted to add since they were a fan of the simplistic style our school’s previous books had.

After all of the presentations were finished, it was time for the closing ceremony and awards presentation in Memorial Hall. We all walked over together- it was sad realizing this was our last camp event. The individual awards were presented as well as class awards and theme packet awards; two of our staff members got awards from their class instructors, but we didn’t receive a theme packet award. This was disappointing to the returning members and our adviser since our school had a reputation of getting some sort of theme award each year, but we understood the differences in what we put out and what the judges normally look for. We watched a slideshow put together by the camp workers and photography students of pictures from each day and event at camp; it was crazy to look back on the last few days and realize we were already going home.

The ceremony finished quickly after the slideshow was over and it was time to check out of our dorms and hit the road. My roomie and I said a final farewell to our cute little dorm and brought all our stuff to the common room where everyone else met up. We headed down together and dropped our keys in the dropbox, saying goodbye to Henley Hall. We had carpools set up for the drive home as well; I was in a car with two of our EICs and my friend. We just chatted the whole time about the camp and what was to come in the next year of yearbook. The drive was about two hours and we left at 12:30, so we arrived around 2:30 back at school. I said goodbye to everyone, and my mom was there to take me home. It felt soooo good to be back in my bed- I unintentionally took a nice nap before unpacking, eating, and beginning to catch up on emails and such.

Camp was an amazing bonding experience- our yearbook staff is like a family and I was surprised how quickly we all seemed to fit together. I fell in love with everything about it and I’m glad that I now have something about the upcoming school year to look forward to. I will definitely be posting yearbook updates throughout the year since it is going to be a big part of my life (and big time commitment!) from now on, so I hope you guys are interested. I highly recommend you join the yearbook at your school if it’s something you’ve been wanting to do- even if you have no experience, it’s easy to start learning. I’ll be back with new content soon- I’m leaving for cheer camp on Monday, and I’ll be posting about that at some point as well.

-Brooke

Hello everyone!

Today I am going to be covering my third day at Chapman University’s yearbook camp! I’ve already posted separately about my experiences on the first and second day of the amazing four-day camp, so make sure to go read those first if you haven’t already! The third day (Sunday, July 21st) was definitely a more laid-back day for me as a yearbook-newbie since there were more activities rather than actual class sessions like the previous day, but our editorial staff members were definitely very stressed since they were up late working the night before and had to continue working on our theme packet submission. The submission was due at 8:30pm and all of the schools at camp were also working hard to meet that deadline, so there was definitely tension for the beginning portion of the day.

My roommate and I got up at 7:00 again and headed to breakfast with our other friend around 7:30am. It was neon theme day so I wore a neon yellow t-shirt with black shorts, neon beaded necklaces, glow stick bracelets, and our EIC gave us all matching neon hats. For breakfast they had french toast sticks so I ate those with scrambled eggs and some pineapple. All of our staff met in the common room so we could head to the daily Memorial Hall opening ceremony together; there were more spirit games and announcements per usual. We didn’t win any spirit awards yet again, but it was all in good fun. There was then a challenge where each school had to go around and write different story ideas for the yearbook (unique twists on universal spreads/topics, like a unique way to cover homecoming for example). This finished up around 9:45am and then it was time for our class sessions.

Our class was held in one of the library computer labs, so we were already familiar with the location and knew where to go. The sessions were shorter- it was still broken up into two, but with only 50 minutes for each and a 10 minute break. We got the whole time to use InDesign on the computer and experiment with designs; it came in handy that the returning members had already taught us newbies the basics of the program. During the 10 minute break my friend and I ran to Starbucks again, this time getting caramel iced coffees! We were both exhausted and really needed the caffeine. Once class was over, it was time for lunch. My friend and I ate lunch together; I had salad and pizza yet again. I swung by my dorm room and checked in with her for a little bit. My other friend and I went on a walk again but it was shorter this time- we brought two of our EICs on the walk with us since they REALLY needed the break.

Once lunch was over, it was time for another elective session/lecture- our last class of the camp! My friend and I headed to one called “It’s Not a Title” per our adviser’s request; it was all about writing headlines and subheads. The instructor was nice and had us take notes, before eventually giving us sample articles to practice writing headlines for. The class let out at 2:45 and then we got to head back to the dorms. The camp held indoor games in a common area of Argyros Forum, and our adviser wanted all the non-editors to go participate. We headed there around 4:00 after some time to relax, but it was very uneventful and we ended up leaving around 4:45. All of the editors/everyone else was working on the theme packet in the library computer lab, so we headed there and fooled around on InDesign again. Dinner was at 5:45 so we packed up around 5:30 and headed to the dining hall.

I had chicken and some turkey from the deli bar for dinner with more cookies, of course! We were told to just go back to the dorms and hang out while the editors finished off the theme packet; it was due at 8:30 and they were almost done at that point. I hung out with my roommate (by the way, my roomie is one of my best friends, I’m just referring to her as that to clarify), our other friend, and one of the guys. We sat in the hallway since boys aren’t allowed in girls’ rooms and vice versa just talking about random things, until we noticed that a bunch of boys (and girls!) were having some sort of party in one of the rooms we were sitting next to. We kept joking about joining their party when one of the boys that was in there actually came out and started talking to us- the encounter was funny at first but actually a bit strange, so we all made excuses and went back to our rooms.

By this point, the theme packets had been submitted and our editors were relieved! A neon glow party (to match the day’s theme) was happening at 9:00 and we knew there would be Domino’s pizza, so we headed there. The actual party looked like a middle school dance and was in a very small space so we just grabbed the pizza, ate there, and went back to the dorms. The lights-out time was a half-hour later than normal because of the neon party (12:00 rather than 11:30), but we didn’t have plans to do anything else at first. My roomie and I both showered and got ready for bed, but around 10:00 our other friend texted us saying she was gathering almost all of the girls in her room just to hang out. We went there and just talked for a couple hours- we ended up staying until 12:00, oops! It was a great bonding experience and we shared lots of fun stories. Someone eventually knocked on the door to tell us to keep it down, so all of us except for our friend and her roomie ran into the bathroom so we wouldn’t get in trouble for being out of our rooms. That was our cue to go- my roomie and I basically ran down the hall and sighed of relief when we made it undetected into our room. We went to bed around 12:30 and I slept wonderfully since I was just so tired.

I hope you guys have been enjoying hearing about my experience at yearbook camp! A post detailing the last day (which was more of a half-day) at camp will be up tomorrow. Let me know if you guys have any requests for yearbook content or any other content- lots more is to come! I can’t believe it’s already about to be August, make sure you guys enjoy the remainder of your summer!

-Brooke

Welcome back everyone!

Today I am going to be covering everything that happened on my second day of yearbook camp at Chapman University. If you haven’t already read my post discussing the first day of camp, make sure to check that out now! I returned home yesterday, and I can confidently say this camp was one of the best experiences I’ve had and it taught me so much about yearbook. This is my first year being a part of yearbook and my first time doing anything journalism-related, so there’s definitely a learning curve.

The second day of camp (Saturday, July 20th) had a Disney character theme. Each day had a different spirit/dress-up theme, and everyone on our staff dressed accordingly since at the opening session each day there were spirit prizes up for grabs. My roommate and I had set our alarms for 7:00am since breakfast started at 7:15 and we didn’t mind going a little bit later; we woke up and put on our Disney outfits! Our editor-in-chief had come up with the idea to do Snow White and the 7 (13) Dwarfs, so we all had nametags and hats.

Everyone met up at breakfast; I had three small waffles, some scrambled eggs, and a mini blueberry muffin. Everything was pretty good, but I definitely missed my fresh berries I always eat at home. After eating, we met with our teacher/adviser in the common room so we could all head to the opening ceremony at Memorial Hall together. There were some spirit games and announcements- someone lost their wallet, and the workers made them come up on stage and dance in order to get it back. We sadly didn’t win the spirit award, but we didn’t expect to because there were definitely some crazy spirited schools out there.

Our first class of the day began at 9:15am; it was broken up into two hour-long sessions with a 15 minute break in the middle. Throughout the two hours, we worked on our first design layout (on paper, not the computers just yet) and took notes on lots of design and photography terms. The building my class was in happened to be right next to the on-campus Starbucks, so as soon as the break began my friend and I ran there in order to beat the rush. We got caramel macchiatos for a caffeine boost; it was my first time trying one and it was delicious!! We headed back to class for another hour and then got dismissed for lunch.

Lunch was an hour and 45 minutes, so there was no rush to eat. My friend and I sat outside to soak up the sun since the weather was perfect that day. I ate cheese pizza and salad- it was pretty good, the vegetables actually tasted decently fresh. Since we still had so much time, we stopped back at the dorms to freshen up and then decided to go on a walk around campus. We asked my roomie/other friend if she wanted to come but she was more in the mood to relax, so the two of us headed out alone to explore. It was actually extremely nice; we took the long way around and ended up stopping to sit on a bench in the shade and just talk/catch up. We were also very close to our class, so we had no trouble getting there when it was time to finally go.

The class was divided into two sessions with a fifteen minute break again, but this time each session was an extra fifteen minutes longer as well. We edited the spreads we had made on paper with the help of our instructor and learned more about photography. We also touched on writing and wrote some sample captions; the instructor read mine out loud to the class because she liked it, so that was pretty cool! Class let out at 4:15 and then we headed to another theme development session with the rest of our members. Our editorial staff and our adviser were in a computer lab in the library starting to work on spreads for the theme packet (something you submit to the camp regarding your ideas for this year’s book and get judged on) and all of us newbies didn’t have anything to do, so some of the returning members that didn’t have huge responsibilities started teaching us how to use our design program. We use Adobe InDesign, and it’s actually so interesting and fun using it. I still haven’t completely gotten the hang of it, but it’s not too hard to pick up.

Learning to use InDesign was the highlight of my day; it was also fun because one of the returning members was explaining to me and my friend how to use it, and he was extremely funny. The three of us were just chatting and laughing the whole time. About an hour later it was time for dinner, so we all packed up and went to the dining hall as a group. I had pasta and chicken with more of their signature chocolate-chip cookies. Next we had classes again, but this time they were elective sessions (more like lectures) where we had options to choose from, rather than more sessions of our one selected class. My friends and I ended up choosing a class called Looking For the Right Photos that discussed a combination of photography and design; we didn’t learn much, but the instructor was extremely funny. He just talked about what types of photos to put in your spreads and how you should be taking lots of different photos from unique angles to have more options.

We didn’t feel like going to a second elective session since we knew all of our editorial staff and our adviser were working in the computer lab again on the theme packet, so we randomly just chose to go to Yearbook Hacks when our adviser insisted we pick something. The instructor discussed lots of random topics, from staff bonding to refund policies to marketing. It seemed more like a class for advisers, but there were tons of other students there so it wasn’t our mistake or something in attending. Class let out at 8:50 and there was going to be another spirit-related event in Memorial Hall at 9:00, but our adviser had us skip it and head to the library computer lab. All of the newbies (me included) played around with InDesign more while the veterans designed spreads for the theme packet and got actual work done. I felt bad seeing them all stressed out while there was no way for us to contribute.

The lab closed at 9:30 so we all walked back to the dorm together. The returning members that were still working on the theme packet (mainly the three EICs and a couple other designers) stayed in the common area with our adviser while everyone else had nothing to do but relax and get ready for bed. I hung out with some of the other newbies and then returned to my room to watch some YouTube videos and shower. My roomie was one of the designers working on spreads so she came in around 11:30 and quickly showered and got ready for bed as well. We talked again for a while and just discussed how fun (but crazy!) camp had been so far- we were basically zombies at this point- and finally went to bed around 12:00 (I fell asleep straight away!).

I hope you enjoyed hearing about more of my experiences at camp, and I highly encourage you to check out my post about the first day there if you haven’t! I will be posting about the third and fourth day at camp very soon, so make sure to look out for that too. It was such an amazing experience and completely opened my eyes to how much work actually goes into making a yearbook- if you guys are interested in me making more yearbook-related content as the year goes on, please let me know!

-Brooke

Hello everyone!

First things first, I apologize for posting this a few days late; I overestimated how much free time I would have at camp. The important thing is I am back now and ready to share the wonderful experience I had!! In case you haven’t read my recent posts that referenced me going to this camp, I am a new member of my school’s yearbook staff (I joined for this upcoming year) and every year they attend this four-day summer camp at Chapman University. The camp is put on by our publishing company and involves a variety of classes and activities- we also got the chance to get to know each other, stay in the dorms, and have lots of fun! Today I’m just going to cover everything that went down during our first day at camp.

I was nervous about going to camp beforehand; two of my best friends were going to be there as well, but other than that I knew no one. As soon as my mom dropped me off at school and I got in the car, I began talking to the three other girls I was driving up with. We set up carpools since our staff is pretty small (14 people attended, but for reference our staff is around 20 total) so we weren’t going to take a bus; I also thought this was a great icebreaker to have some initial conversations with people before we even arrived! One of the girls in the car happened to be one of our editor-in-chiefs, so it was awesome to talk to her about that and ask her some questions about yearbook in general. The drive was supposed to be about two hours and we left at 8:15, but we hit a ton of traffic around LAX and ended up stopping to use the bathroom, so we didn’t arrive at Chapman until almost 11:00.

We checked into our rooms and I was excited to find that one of my aforementioned best friends was my roommate! All of our rooms were in Henley Hall on the third floor, and the dorms were actually very nice. I stayed in a dorm at UCSB for cheer camp last year, and the dorms were tiny, gross, and had communal bathrooms. The Chapman dorms we stayed in were spacious; they were clean, there was a nice heating/air conditioning system we definitely utilized, and we had a bathroom for only the two of us to share. It makes sense since it is a smaller and private university, but it still really impressed me (plus, the only other experience I have with college dorms was with UCSB, so my expectations weren’t very high!). We organized our stuff and settled in quickly. Our first camp-provided meal was dinner, so we ate sack lunches in our rooms before meeting up with the rest of our staff in the common room.

At the camp, one of the main goals is to develop your theme for the year’s book and start designing certain spreads based on that. We spent some time throwing around theme ideas and talking about goals for the yearbook until it was time to attend the camp welcome session in Memorial Hall. As we walked over there (it was in a building in the more central campus, our dorms were across the street in kind of a separate compound), I couldn’t believe how gorgeous and peaceful the campus was! It was also nice that it was so walkable and compact; it made it much easier to navigate. The welcome session was straightforward- it outlined what we would be doing and we got to play some spirited games. The theme of the day was superheroes so we were all wearing superhero t-shirts, capes, and masks. A speaker also explained the concept of theme and coverage in the yearbook to us, which was definitely helpful for me as a complete newbie.

After the session ended, I hung out in my dorm with my friend/roomie and our other friend until we met everyone else in the common room again to continue theme discussion. We also went around and introduced ourselves to everyone which was super nice! Everyone was extremely welcoming and the yearbook staff is definitely a mini-family, I felt very comfortable and at-home. At 4:15, we had to head to our first class. We had chosen our class when we signed up for camp; I was taking Yearbook 1 (a beginning class that covered the basics of all disciplines), along with my other friend that was a newbie and two other people from our staff. It was cool getting to walk across campus and find our way there by ourselves. In class, we learned what a theme was and brainstormed unique activities at our school that we could later write about in the book.

When class let out, it was finally time for dinner. Everyone was starving since no one had really packed that sustainable of a lunch; we basically ran to the dining hall and were ready to gorge. The dining hall was right next to our dorm which was convenient. I had two plates of buttered pasta (picky eater things!), some fruit, and two chocolate chip cookies. They didn’t have too many options, but the things I ate were very good and I was satisfied (I definitely enjoyed the food at UCSB more when I was there). Everyone pretty much wolfed down their food so we still had a lot of extra time left; we hung out in our dorms and had some more downtime.

At 7:00 we had to go to an official theme development session where an instructor helped us and other schools’ staff on really deciding on a theme. We came up with the theme “What Will Be” (themes are usually little phrases like that) based off of the period of transition our school is in for this upcoming year and the fact that our EICs really want to revamp the style of our book in comparison to its minimalistic layout in previous years. The instructor gave us some critiques and came up with ideas for design elements we could use (you need to have three solid design elements on your cover that will appear throughout the book) and we got to study other schools’ books from last year.

We felt pretty satisfied with our progress and coming up with the theme in that session; once it was over, it was time to go to another event in Memorial Hall. It was probably the funniest thing that happened at camp- it was a Battle of The Schools event hosted by some DJ, but the whole thing was just hilarious. The music choices were all kind of old songs (think middle school dance) and there were lasers and some form of light show. The DJ was just really one of a kind and had us doing weird games/competitions/dances. He had someone in an inflatable baby costume come out and dance with no explanation as to what a huge baby had to do with the event. At one point there was a trivia game for some reason, and every school was cheating by looking up the answers and mouthing it to their representative on stage (guilty as charged!). Interestingly enough, we ended up winning the competition somehow (we’re really not sure how since it didn’t even make sense) which meant we are the lucky winners of a free party hosted by those DJs at our school- can’t wait for that!

We got back to our rooms around 10:40pm and were completely exhausted. My roomie and I quickly showered and got ready for bed before just talking and relaxing until lights out. Lights out was at 11:30pm; we continued talking for a little while after we turned the lights off, but said goodnight soon after. I had a little bit of trouble falling asleep (sometimes I have a hard time adjusting to sleeping in a new environment) but the beds were decently comfortable and they provided a pillow so with mine that I brought I had two to sleep on. The day had quickly come to a close, and left me excited for the much, much crazier next day.

I hope you guys enjoyed this perspective on what it was like to go to such an interesting type of camp! I know some of the things mentioned are a bit confusing if you’re not in yearbook, so let me know if you have any questions or would like me to make a post explaining yearbook-related things! I’m definitely a huge newbie myself so I have a lot to learn still, but this weekend immersing myself in everything at camp really taught me a lot already. I will be posting about the other 3 days of camp as soon as possible (I’m writing this on the day I got back), but feel free to request other content! Lots more to come 🙂

-Brooke

Hello everyone!

I’ve noticed there hasn’t been as much upbeat music out this summer, which disappointed me a bit. When I think of summertime, I think of days out by the pool with typical pop songs blasting from a speaker. Even with a lack of new music with positive tones, I’ve still found some songs I enjoy. I figured I would share them with you guys in a somewhat “playlist” format. I’m not going to explain in detail why I like each song since my opinion won’t matter too much to you anyways; music is so subjective that I just suggest you listen to these songs yourself!

With that, here’s my current summer playlist (mainly new songs but some from earlier in the year):

• Cross Me by Ed Sheeran feat. Chance the Rapper & PnB Rock – Easily my favorite right now!
• Beautiful People by Ed Sheeran feat. Khalid – I’m a huge fan of both Ed Sheeran and Khalid; there are tons of other Khalid songs on here
• I Don’t Care by Ed Sheeran feat. Justin Bieber – I like listening to this during relaxing car rides
• The London by Young Thug feat. J Cole and Travis Scott – The fast pace of this song made it fitting for the playlist
• You Need To Calm Down by Taylor Swift – I’ll admit this one is a bit too typical and cheesy of a pop song, but I love Taylor and the message.
• No Guidance by Chris Brown feat. Drake
• Tequilawine by Olivia O’Brien – One of my all-time favorites
• Sunflower by Post Malone and Swae Lee – Such a positive song!
• 8TEEN by Khalid – This song just exudes summer vibes to me
• Saturday Nights by Khalid
• Twenty One by Khalid
• Free Spirit by Khalid
• Hundred by Khalid
• Paradise by Khalid
• Right Back by Khalid
• Talk by Khalid
• Better by Khalid
• My Bad by Khalid
• Bad Luck by Khalid – I didn’t give explanations for all of the Khalid songs above because they’re all on the same album and I love them for the same reasons; they’re so peaceful and relaxing to listen to so they are a bit more laid-back, but some are more upbeat than others
• Jackie Chan by Tiësto and Dzeko feat. Preme and Post Malone – This comes from last summer’s hits, but it still has that same energy everytime I hear it
• OTW by Khalid, 6LACK, and Ty Dolla $ign – One of my favorites from the end of 2018 (I believe) but it still holds up
• Money In The Grave by Drake feat. Rick Ross – Very high energy and catchy, typical Drake
• Out the Mud by Lil Baby and Future – I haven’t heard much from Future in a while so this was refreshing, also pretty upbeat of a song
• ICE by Gucci Mane feat. Gunna and Lil Baby – Just a typical rap song but I enjoy the collaboration of these three artists so I kept it on my playlist
• Go Loko by YG feat. Tyga and Jon Z – I am a (jokingly) huge fan of Tyga and I like the beat of this song

I hope you guys go listen to some of these songs and enjoy them! They’re definitely not very unique picks but I still thought I would share since together they make a nice, upbeat summer playlist. I definitely have a more “basic” music taste; I mainly listen to pop and rap (and I guess R&B because of Khalid). Let me know if there’s songs you think I should add and what your favorite song of the summer is! I’ll be back with more content soon.

-Brooke