Teen Just Wants This Photo of Him and His Cat in the Yearbook
Draven Rodriguez, a student at Schenectady High School in upstate New York, has a dream for his senior yearbook: that it will include this professional photo of him and his cat, Mr. Bigglesworth, and lasers. "I'm not trying to make any statement," Rodriguez told The Daily Gazette, "other than my photo is ridiculous and this is how I am."
Rodriguez had been planning the photo since his junior year. He wants, simply, to be remembered.
"I don't want to go in the yearbook with the generic 'I-look-like-everyone-else' photo," he told the Gazette. "I wanted a 'He looks great. Only he would try that' photo."
He has preemptively started an online petition to allow for the photo's inclusion in the forthcoming edition of the school's yearbook, though the school hasn't necessarily said he can't yet. They have said that they will not allow for the photo to run in the portraits section.
"That will not appear in the portrait section," Karen Corona, a school district spokeswoman, told the Gazette. "There are other places in the yearbook where those photos can be placed."
The teen appears to be content with the school's decision, telling the Gazette, "I can work with that."
