This year’s picture day had long lines, as students were taking their first official identification in 18 months. With Covid and time management issues lingering, there were a fresh set of challenges in need of attention.

Picture day was split into two days, September 30 and October 1, the date and time were both alphabtial.

The split of students throughout the two days was unbalanced, going from extremely busy the first day to nearly empty the next. Most students’ last names fall into the first half of the alphabet, leaving fewer students for the second day.

Kasra Pourreza Djourshari, a freshman, said “I almost missed my whole class. I wasn’t really worried–I knew my teachers were aware of where I was. It was just so frustrating to miss almost a whole day of learning just for a school picture.”

This generated stress for students. Junior Lily Reynolds also noticed the effects of the lengthy line on her friends.

“I didn’t experience a really long line, but I know a lot of people did, and it really interrupted class and some people missed all of one class,” Reynolds said.

On the contrary, October 1 had little to no waiting time. Students expected to have a long wait like the previous day and were surprised to see how few people were waiting before them when they arrived.

The mask situation also caused issues with the picture taking process for a few students. “I think masks are really important, but they were an obstacle for picture day and they may have had a negative effect on some people’s pictures,” said Reynolds.

There is no denying the need for masks and their role in keeping everyone safe on picture day. However, students grew frustrated at the visible difference the masks made in their appearance. Since masks were kept on up until the last possible moment, some faces appeared red, hot, and shiny in the final photo.

Despite these obstacles, students were happy to have a proper picture day once again.

“It’s also really cool that we got a proper picture day because so many kids were not in the yearbook last year,” said Reynolds.