2023 BRIANA WATERS Goodbye

M5

M-5. A classroom shoved in the corner of Rocklin High’s campus. Many people just refer to it as their journalism, photo, or publications class. But to graduating senior, Briana Waters, she can look back and remember this room as much more. Briana was a member of our production staff for the 2022-2023 school year, she was one of the design editors. Being involved in a program for four years can change and teach you a lot as a person. As a high schooler, Waters has always been drawn to the creative process of designing and producing the yearbook. But it wasn’t until her senior year that she truly understood the value of teamwork and collaboration. “My favorite [memory] out of all of those days we stayed late was definitely the day of the deadline because we got a lot of our editors together and we were all in Mr. Ruby’s room working late,” Waters said. It was a race against time as the editors rushed to complete the final touches before the looming deadline. Waters explains, “We were running out of time and we stayed until about midnight, all of us just trying to work as fast as we could to get it [the yearbook] done because our deadline was at 11:59 that night.” Despite the stress and pressure of the situation, Waters and her fellow editors were able to submit the yearbook before midnight, at 11:47 p.m. Looking back on her high school years, Waters will know her time on the yearbook staff was one of the most impactful experiences of her highschool career. It taught her to take risks, to believe in herself, and to form meaningful connections with others.

showed her gratitude towards her favorite teacher when she explained how Mr. Baumgardener created such an impact on her time in highschool, “he’s a mentor to me, whenever I have problems he’s the first one I go to. He helps me snap into reality and get my stuff done.” While Vongschanphen isn’t being taught math by Mr. Baumgardener anymore, she continued to learn life lessons while being a TA for the math teacher. “He motivates me because he’s such a good person that has seen it all,” she concluded.

two of her friends also in the yearbook program, all got the positions they had hoped for. Before she knew it, she was jumping up and down along with her friends in excitement for what this meant for all of their futures within the program. “Yearbook had always been important, but for me this was the moment it became real. It was the moment where I realized I could do it and that I could go further into yearbook while making really good friends,” said Van Biber. Along with this confidence, the new position helped Van Biber feel more at home in M-5, as she said “It made me feel more important in the class than I thought I was. These people that I looked up to valued me as more than just staff.” As the years went by, this editor-in-training position continued to open new doors for Van Biber, as she even went on to become one of the editors-in-chief for the yearbook her senior year. During her time in the program, she has not only worked her way up to this position, but has made some of her closest friends with some of her favorite memories. “I think when I am older and will look back on high school I think it will be M-5, it’s gonna be yearbook. There’s nothing much else that I do here that has made such an impact on me, like the friends I have now, how it has taken up my time, and has been something I actually enjoy. It has meant so much to me, and the people I’ve met along with the memories, I can’t think of anything similar to it.”