The New York Post had an exclusive, front-page story today about the horror of…not AIDS, not poverty, not murder or mayhem, not even Tom Cruise. No, their terror is the yearbook photo of an 11-year-old girl.
There are days when I marvel at the unreal shallowness of the human condition and then there are days when I seriously want to pack it in. Here is an example of why.
Young Asheana Maihepat apparently wasn’t there for yearbook photo day because she was sick. Her make-up shot fell after the deadline. So, her teacher sent in a shot she had taken previously – not exactly professional, but we are talking about middle schoolers here.
The parents say the girl has been crying for days over the “horrible” photo and they think it could scar her for life. Seriously. Just in case you think I’m lying, here are some quotes from the mother…
“For the rest of her life, she’s going to have to be ashamed of that horrible picture,” Maihepat said.
“Twenty years down the line, she’s going to look at this book with her friends, and her friends are going to say, ‘What happened to you there?'”
Ok, wait, what may or may not happen in 20 years is worth a front-page story? And, is it just me, or doesn’t EVERYONE look back and think the same thing? Hell, you should see my drivers license picture!
But, the family considers this nothing short of a school cover up. The story continues…
The family says anything less than a total recall is not good enough, reasoning that the yearbook is Asheana’s legacy among all her classmates at PS 121.
“Who knows, one day she might be famous or have a lot of money and someone could blackmail her with that picture,” Maihepat said.
LOL!!!! OMG, she could be famous one day and this picture might be blackmail!!! I’m just wondering how exactly putting that on the front page of one of the most-read papers in the world helps to soothe the pain of a bad photo seen previously by only a few hundred people at best. What a nutcase.
I feel sorry for this poor girl, not because of the photo but because she is living in a fantasy world fueled by parents who consider a yearbook photo the end of the line for a child with her whole life ahead of her.
Well done, my friends. Well done.