Why, oh, why would any high school think of denying what is quite possibly the most epic yearbook photo ever?
Upstate New York's Schenectady High School senior Draven Rodriguez took to iPetitions in an effort to get support for his one-of-a-kind portrait to be included in the school's 2015 yearbook. The photo, taken by Vincent Giordano from Trinacria Photography, features Rodriguez wearing a suit and holding his cat, Mr. Bigglesworth. Pink and blue lasers crisscross over the image and a large, superimposed shot of the cat appears in the upper-righthand corner.
"This is my photo that should be going into the yearbook, but we know how finicky the school systems can be," he writes in the petition, adding that the deadline for senior portraits is Sept. 15. "I'm hoping that with enough signatures, my school simply can't turn this down."
The shot is nothing short of 1980s perfection.
Rodriguez explained to the Daily Gazette that he wants his photo to stand out.
“I don’t want to go in the yearbook with the generic ‘I-look-like-everyone-else’ photo,” he said. “I wanted a ‘He looks great. Only he would try that’ photo.”
He also wants his photo to leave a lasting impression befitting of his personality.
"It's mostly for fun," Rodriguez explained to Albany's WRGB. "I really want to be remembered for who I was, a very vibrant, very intense personality you can say I have. I'm very humorous. I try to be very witty and I thought it would almost be a good statement, like, 'Yeah, only Draven would really do that.'"
Although Rodriguez's petition states the school hadn't denied his photo just yet, Karen Corona, a spokeswoman for the school district, told the Daily Gazette Rodriguez's photo won't appear in the portrait section. It can, however, be placed elsewhere in the yearbook.
“It doesn’t mean the photo won’t be in the yearbook," she said. "It just means it won’t be in the section where the more professional photos are.”
If an 80s-themed portrait featuring a suited teen and a furry feline isn't professional, then we don't know what is.
