The yearbook is many things: a journal of the year’s accomplishments, a way to preserve heartfelt sentiments about friendship, and even a collection of pictures that will inspire either nostalgia or embarrassment years down the road.

This year’s yearbook promises to be no less than that, and the yearbook staff has prestige to back it up.

The Cy Ranch 2013-2014 yearbook, the Stampede, has been featured in Balfour’s annual Yearbook Yearbook, a collection of exemplary yearbooks from around the country. The Stampede won Honorable Mention, a distinction awarded to only 13 percent of yearbook staffs.

Future yearbook editors (and current yearbook staff members) juniors Meredith Fite and Clarissa Wells were excited and honored to receive this award.

“We feel great about it,” Wells said. “We worked really hard and it shows that our hard work paid off.”

Creating the yearbook is a year-long process, beginning in August and not stopping until late February. Above that, though, it’s definitely a labor of love, as the arduous work and the long hours lead to something truly great.

“It’s awesome seeing your work on screen and then finally being able to hold it and share your hard work with other people,” Wells said.

The yearbook staff has promised that this year’s Stampede will shine brighter than the last. The theme is Journey, an appropriate title for a year filled with ups and downs.

“The theme is very fitting for this year,” Wells said. “This year’s journey is very different, and I feel like we went much farther than last year.”

The 2014-2015 Stampede arrived with much fanfare last week, being delivered to an enthusiastic yearbook staff.

“When the yearbooks came in, I was extremely excited,” Fite said. “I felt like all the hard work was worth it. It was really nostalgic to look back on everything we made.”

Already thinking about next year’s Stampede, the future editors are confident that they will continue the excellence the yearbook is known for.

“This was the ‘Year of the Mustang,'” Fite said. “We want to continue to capture that and keep it going.”

The 2014-2015 yearbook will be distributed during all lunches from Tuesday, May 26 to Thursday, May 28.