Has HaigTV Become More Memorable Than Yearbooks?

Julie Mesha

Opinions

For new students at Earl Haig, it can be tricky to navigate such a large school, especially when it comes to joining clubs, getting to know teachers, and understanding our traditions. With COVID threatening to move classes and extracurriculars online, I recently found myself becoming disconnected from Haig’s spirit and the students that make up the dozens of clubs and teams here. I was looking for a video by HaigTV, and I found myself sucked into a rabbit hole of videos dating all the way back to 2010. I felt nostalgic rewatching the LC and SAC videos I was shown when I was going into grade nine. I found it hilarious that there were videos of random students doing the Harlem Shake in the foyer. There was a video of Mr. Webster and Mr. Kettle playing “What's in the Box,” and I learned that Mr. Webster has been making jokes about Gen Z since 2019. I watched old competition and assembly videos and remembered old club presidents that have long graduated. Through those videos, I watched the student body grow with one another and the world. Watching HaigTV capture past events and students at our school made me proud to attend the school, even though my experience at Haig has been anything but normal. HaigTV captured the student experience better than a photo in a yearbook could. Listening to students have conversations, laugh, dance, act, and poke fun at each other felt unique to our school, and a lot more personable than staring at pictures of smiling students in organized rows.

It can be easy to get caught up in the logistics of joining a club at Haig. It’s easy to get obsessed with where you are on the social ladder, what gets you the most respect from teachers and students, or which clubs look most impressive on a resume. However, it would be a shame to neglect the fact that we are teenagers, who are crude, funny, and a lot of the time, strange. Capturing the aura of the years we’re living is, in my opinion, worth a lot more than a book filled with group pictures. More support should be given to HaigTV for capturing the everyday life of our school. Maybe some bored students in the far future will get lost in a rabbit hole of videos, laugh at our dated fashion sense, and feel closer to their school community.