School culture / Senior quotes · 2024–2025
The Yearbook Adviser's Senior Quote Came From a Kitten Postcard
Every fall, seniors get under a hundred characters to define themselves forever. The adults supervising them have already used theirs.
When the yearbook staff at Lovett, in Atlanta, emailed seniors in 2024 that their quotes were due September 16, chaos erupted, the student paper reported. One senior said she had been waiting her whole Lovett career to choose an unforgettable quote and now had no clue what to do.
The rules did not help. Under 100 characters. No acronyms, no abbreviations, no creative spelling. No timestamp references to movies, television, Netflix or other episodic media. Every quote reviewed by the administration and the yearbook staff, "To prevent mischief from sneaky seniors."
The reporter surveyed the seniors. Sources ranged from doom-scrolling Instagram to South Park to Fortnite, which seemed, the paper noted, to be a popular resource that year.
Then the reporter asked the adults, which is where it got good. The head of the Upper School recalled his instantly, a baseball broadcaster's call: "Cubs win. Cubs win. Holy Cow." It still means a lot to him. But with his more developed brain, he said, he would not choose it now.
The yearbook adviser started laughing as soon as she was asked. Her quote came from a postcard of kittens dressed up as ladies, and it said, "When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping." A colleague across the table laughed so hard that another teacher put her head into the office to say they could be heard down the hall.
Every adult in the building had already used up their hundred characters, and none of them wanted a refund more than the one in charge of the yearbook.
Mine, from 1996, was "I'll be back," attributed to The Terminator. I have been back. I have been back to that school twice, for reunions, and both times someone has done the voice.
There is, at least, a deadline to end the agony. In December 2025, Taft High School in Chicago posted: "Senior Quotes Due Date TODAY!" with a reminder that it was "the absolute FINAL deadline." Obscenities would get a quote removed, and you would not be able to resubmit.
I like that. "Absolute FINAL" is how I would like my own quote handled: one shot, no resubmission, a sentence locked in a book while your hair is at its worst.
The eldest's senior quote is due next fall. She has already asked me for suggestions. I offered three. She said no to all of them and asked whether I still had the kitten postcard version. I don't. But I do have "I'll be back," and it is, technically, under a hundred characters.
Sources
The public records, school pages and published accounts this story draws on. Where the story imagines a scene or a line of dialogue, that is the column’s telling, not a quotation.
- Senior Quote, Unquote, The Lovett OnLion thelovettonlion.com
- Senior Quotes Due Date TODAY!, Taft High School Chicago tafthighschool.org
- Derek Paiva, senior yearbook quotations, Honolulu Advertiser the.honoluluadvertiser.com