By Isabel Hicks & Nicole Kalosh

Every year, students anticipate the release of senior superlatives and become excited to start campaigning for the categories they fit in. The tradition of superlatives has existed for decades and is an embedded part of high school culture. Although many argue that superlatives can limit how students showcase themselves, superlatives actually allow for a fun and exciting way to illustrate your personality.

The categories of this year’s superlatives were: Classics, Success, Personality, Friends, and Just for Fun.

“We’re always trying to do something new each year with every new yearbook,” senior and Tartan Yearbook People’s Editor Hrach Nersisyan said. “We look through previous years’ yearbooks to decide which categories are too outdated, categories that are too classic to get rid of, and brainstorm new creative categories.”

Oftentimes, the main criticism of superlatives is that they’re old-fashioned and a rigid popularity contest, which is why it’s important that the Tartan Yearbook staff revisits the categories each year and creates more modern categories that students want to see.

As soon as superlatives were announced, students flocked to their social media to organize their campaign posts for their category. The majority of campaigns were done over Instagram stories, with fun detailing and cute pictures all added together in a collage with a link to the voting form.
We found the process entertaining, as it was fun to see our peers create collages they thought best represented them in whatever category they ran for. It created a space for creative self-expression and friendly competition among the senior class.

“Throughout the week, more and more people started campaigning for the category I was running for, making it more competitive,” senior Jiane Ripotola said. “Fortunately, in the end, hard work paid off and I got awarded Most Likely to be on Aux.”

Some people found the process to be repetitive and annoying, but it was fun to see how much the school came together to repost each other and get out the word for nominations. Most students don’t really showcase school spirit at GHC, and it was a refreshing experience getting to see how many students made collages and dedicated their stories to reposting themselves and their friends.

“It was really fun seeing nominees get their friends involved with their campaigns as the student involvement with superlatives demonstrated what yearbook is all about, which is boosting school spirit and interaction amongst students,” said Nersisyan.

Although previously, there was always one category for boys and one for girls, in efforts to be more gender inclusive, a few years ago, the Tartan Yearbook staff decided to remove gendered categories and instead allow for two winners regardless of gender for each category. This was a positive change that allowed students to express their genuine preferences outside the basis of gender. By no longer including the stereotypical binary categories, GHC superlatives allow for greater authentic self-expression.

The final voting form closed on November 17. The four students who received the top nominations during the nomination period were included in the final voting. The top two students with the most votes would be labeled the winners of the category.

Superlative winners were announced when Tartan Yearbook visited the classes of the winning students and made an announcement to the class crowning them as the winners of their category.
This was a new way of announcing the winners and served as a more engaging way to celebrate the winners than the simple email and Instagram posts used in previous years.

GHC’s senior superlatives are a great way to showcase school spirit and one’s authentic personality. From collages of outfits for the Best Dressed category to the funny TikToks made for the Driver and Passenger Princess category, superlatives have been a fun experience to be part of or to enjoy watching from the sidelines.