News Staff

Peytience McMillen has been at the J, Graham Brown School since her freshman year, and is now entering her last year of high school. Between the stresses of being a senior about to go into college and having a full time job, she has found the time to remain at peace as she prioritizes herself and her needs. 

Some of her hobbies are cheer and hanging out with her friends. Despite her desire to live somewhere along the coast or in Washington when she is older, she has been thinking about going to Bellarmine and Claremont McKenna for international relations. The thing that has motivated her throughout this tough last year of high school has been getting college paid for.

Over her summer break, she vacationed in Morocco and was able to look at other cultures and ways of life outside of western society, which is something that she was grateful for. With all of her ambition and determination, she will be a great addition to the news department of the  Brown School newspaper.

Being a student at Brown School comes with one simple caveat: once you know someone, you know them forever. That fact is becoming particularly evident to me as I enter my senior year at Brown. Watching the students who were always in the classes below me start to morph into grown-ups with tangible goals is terrifying.

Lu Schmidt’s growing-up is one of the scariest. He and I met when I was in 8th grade and he was in 6th; we grew up side by side throughout middle school, especially since we went to school and did theatre together. The older students and I would look out for him at the bus stop. As we began to get our licenses, we would find ways to get him and his fellow underclassmen to the theatre after school, dividing non-drivers between cars and sometimes packing in like sardines to get there. 

I remember being in a class with him right before COVID hit during my 8th grade year, when he confessed that he would prefer to work in tech rather than perform onstage. Everything shut down soon after, but once we returned in full swing, he was working hard side-by-side with our theatre’s stagecraft professionals. Then, his freshman year, we watched him spread his wings and start working outside the conservatory- a huge step in the high school theatre world, especially for someone so young. 

“I think when I worked professionally in theatre for the first time when I was fourteen, I feel like I’m really proud of that,” Lu said of his experience. “It was an all-adult cast and I was kind of on my own tech-wise, so I kind of had to take over for some of the prop design and costume design as well, and it was definitely a different experience from what I’ve had at Commonwealth Theatre Center [CTC] and it was just, it was nice to be able to do something outside of what I normally do.” 

When it comes to theatre, Lu is one of the most driven people I know. He’s dedicated to consistently bettering himself, learning everything he can about stage management and tech work, but he’s also deeply motivated by the people around him.

“It’s definitely the love of the craft, I do really enjoy stage managing,” he said, “but I think it also is a love of the people, as well. I mean, there have been times when I’ve come into CTC with Hannah, the prop designer, and we say we’re gonna work, but we just hang out for two hours instead of actually doing anything. And I’m really thankful to have that kind of relationship with the people I work with and the people around me. And I think I just really enjoy spending time with them.”

Lu is so much more than an impressively committed stage manager. The main way he would describe himself: “I am a hater in my soul. I can talk for hours about how much I hate things. Like, first person, types of stages, aliens. Like, I hate aliens. I hate them. Especially in horror movies. If the twist is ‘oh, it was aliens,’ I want to throw things at the screen.”

However, ‘hater’ is not the first word that comes to my mind when I think of Lu. He’s patient and practical, and his logic and humor shone through even in his ‘hodge-podge’ answers. He was careful to evaluate every aspect of his response, to make sure there were no holes in his rationale. If he could be any age, he said, “I would say a solid, like, twenty-four. I’m old enough to do everything I need to, with a couple extra years, and I feel like that’s just a good age to be, like, most people will assume I’m out of college at twenty-four. Although, the risk for that might be that people assume I don’t have very much experience. And then I can prove them wrong. And then they’ll say ‘why have you been twenty-four for the past thirty-six years, what’s going on here?’ And then they’ll tell the FBI on me, so.”

At his core, Lu is a reflective person who has always been wise beyond his years. He has an enviable sense of direction, but is always careful to show his gratitude for others, even in the most stressful times. “I’m thankful for all of the opportunities I’ve had,” he said. “I’m just, I’m thankful for how everything has aligned in my life… I think I’m just thankful that I’ve been given what I have. And I’m thankful for what I’ve been able to do with that, as well.”

When describing himself, Edward Elam would say that he is a renaissance man due to his wide variety of music taste.  From metal, to hip hop, to rock, his music taste is a melting pot of genres and it is a big part of his life.  

When learning about Edward, a sophomore at Brown School, one of the main things you notice is that a big part of his life is centered around music. When he was a kid, he would spend a lot of his time listening to music. Rap quickly became his favorite genre, and artists like Lil Wayne and Ken Carson became his favorites because of their lyricism.

His love for listening translated into a passion for playing instruments like the violin, viola and cello in the elementary school orchestra. Even though he stopped playing these instruments, it didn’t stop him from creating music. Influenced by rappers like Kanye and Playboi Carti, he began to make his own songs and even released a few. He says he feels happy when creating music, and he hopes to be able to play instruments like the guitar in the future.  

As Edward gets older, he wants to continue to focus on his music by creating his own and learning new instruments. However, he plans to go to college for something in the fields of coding and technology. No matter what, music will always be a big part of him and it helped him to become who he is today. 

How well do you know your peers? I never knew someone so fashionable could also be so smart! Lillian Starnes is a package deal. She’s a sophomore. Most probably know her as 1 ⁄ 2 of the twins, however, she also has an older sister. She vacations at the beach in Florida where she can relax in the summer, and loves her cat Bittie, who she received as a gift. She surrounds herself with people that make her happy and feel “like light.” If she could, she would travel back in time to 2022, simply to relive the great year. Lillian has matured greatly in the past few years and is both grateful for and resentful of this growth, as she sometimes feels like she grew up too fast and is skeptical of others. However, the growth she experiences has helped shape her mind. Her favorite color is red, her favorite food is fried rice (although she enjoys pasta as well), loves study skills and penguins. She plans to move out of Louisville after graduation, but  isn't sure where she wants to go from there just yet. 

As most of you know, Lillian is a twin. Her twin, Kayley, also works on the Bear Necessities. Although they may look alike, they are definitely not the same person! Their parents have always encouraged their individual identity. 

If Lillian could, she would visit Dubai to ride camels and shop in vibrant souks. Lillian says if she could stay the same age forever, she would be 21 years old and follow all her dreams.

Lillian is more than a pretty face. She is also a great writer. She enjoys writing fiction, specifically about her own experiences. She morphs her own experiences into stories that are interesting for the reader. She has experience journaling, which is good for everyone. Journaling is a “healthy medium,” she says. “It's important to express your emotions and come to terms with the feelings you have bottled up.” She is very excited for Journalism, especially because it's her first class with the lovely Neysa. She is excited to make new friends by talking and learning with different people from different grades and backgrounds. She doesn’t know many students in Journalism, so give her a friendly face when you see her and get ready to read her awesome articles in the paper!