With the end of school around the corner, seniors are gearing up for this year’s superlatives. From “Most Athletic” to “Gossip Queen,” there is never a shortage of drama surrounding the yearbook and its awards. However, this year’s controversy addresses a more systemic issue with the Superlatives: they’re old.

Michael Farley, 17-year-old senior at Hall and winner of the superlative for Worst Case of Senioritis, believes the superlatives “need to be updated.” For him, some of the superlatives are far less desirable to win than others. He says that although he “could see it coming”, winning the superlative for worst case of senioritis is “not really something to be proud of.” The issue of undesirable superlatives was especially highlighted earlier this year when the first three winners of the superlative for Gossip Queen – Emma Henderson, Ellie Leonidas and Sarah Cohn – deferred the title before senior Mackenzie Snow accepted it.

In 2006, superlatives became a part of the Hall High yearbook, and the general superlatives have remained the same. However, the school district has made steps in modernizing the process of voting. Both West Hartford High Schools, Conard and Hall, voted this year through email. Drew Booth, a winner of the Most Athletic superlative, believes that voting over email and Google Survey is the best way to “give everyone a chance to vote.” This is a popular belief among other students and superlative winners.

The schools also have created a new policy for the two winners of superlatives. Instead of the highest male and female winners, the superlative goes to the two people with the highest votes. Even though this policy was supposed to be implemented, the best dressed superlative has three winners; two girls had the highest votes, but a boy was still included. Similarly, this year’s superlative for best hair only has one winner.

The biggest improvement seen in superlatives this year was the elimination of a few superlatives such as “Most Attractive” and “Best Car”.  An editor of the yearbook Jacqueline Mcconnell said, “We wanted to eliminate superlatives that were based on superficiality and privilege.”

Senior Shayna Fiedler says that this year’s superlatives don’t “really reflect our grade.” She believes that more contemporary superlatives would spark more interest with the upcoming senior classes. Drew Booth agrees but points out that “the majority of students seem to still be in favor.”

Hall High’s crosstown rival, Conard High, has done a much better overall job at making new superlatives that are amusing and modern. Some of their superlatives are: Most Likely to be IDed at age 30, Best Vsco, and Most Likely to Freak It. While still keeping classics like class clown, the new Conard superlatives are more fun to receive and vote for. Explaining Vsco and “freaking it” to future children will probably lead to funnier stories and better high school memories.