During the fall semester of NTI in 2020, Brown School introduced a Friday Advisory block to the schedule. Students had no in-person classes on Fridays, and were given the opportunity to complete asynchronous work during the school day. The only requirement: they had to join an online advisory meeting.

‘Advisory’ refers to a 30-minute period during which students would meet with classmates and a teacher to discuss the ins-and-outs of life in quarantine in a reasonably unstructured environment. In doing so, they were connecting with their classmates and teacher outside of the classroom. As many students know, opportunities for that sort of interaction were few and far between during the 2020-21 school year.

With the return to in-person school in fall 2021, Advisory fell out of practice. Students were wrapped up in catching back up with their schoolwork and administrators were focused on keeping up with COVID restrictions as schools made the swap from hybrid back to full-time in-person instruction. Contact tracing, or keeping track of who students came in contact with as they moved from class to class, was a major part of that, and schools had neither the time nor the resources to add an advisory block to the mix.

However, as schools begin to return to some sort of normalcy- social distancing, contact tracing, and required masking are no longer administrative priorities in the public school system- Advisory has once again emerged as a key part of the Friday schedule at Brown. From 9:15-10:05, students leave their first block class to head to either an Advisory block or a club, depending on the rotating schedule.

“I think [Advisory] is fun. I feel like clubs could have been more organized, or just, like, not existed at all,” says junior Janelle Pitmon. “Advisory’s fine on its own, but when you add the clubs, it’s like ‘Okay, what am I doing, where am I going’. Like, [2020] Advisory was better.”

“Yeah, because we got to choose our advisors,” concurred junior Sam Yauwanta. 

“In Laura’s Advisory, we just talk and play games. We’re allowed to use it to get work done, but I don’t know why you would do that,” junior Sophie Hyde contributed. Sam and Janelle, who are also in Laura’s Advisory, agreed. “There was this one sub that tried to make us do art.”

“Yeah, that sucked. I don’t want to be forced to do work in advisory. It should be an option, but not required,” Sam agreed.

“I heard we’re supposed to be in the same advisory until we graduate, though, and I’d be mad about that if I didn’t like my advisor,” Janelle concluded.

Juniors Janelle and Sam agreed that they preferred advisory over clubs, but Sophie, who is in Stacy’s Card Club, protested that she enjoys club time. However, all three juniors unanimously agreed that they preferred online advisory to the new in-person advisory.

“Personally, I think it’s a waste of time,” says sophomore Kaileigh Chesman. “I feel like we could be using that time as a Study Skills to, like, get extra work done instead of playing games and ‘connecting’, because we’re not really connecting, we’re just kind of sitting there awkwardly… we’re not allowed to work on other stuff.”

“I get, like, the idea, but I feel like it’s just not really executed properly,” agreed sophomore Daphne Powell.

The sophomores, who are both in Animated Movie Club, said they preferred club days over Advisory days. On the other hand, senior Emerson Tuttle prefers advisory to clubs. “[In Jason’s advisory], we do the question, but if the question is bad, we do our own question. I love it.”

Despite the differing opinions, most high schoolers agree that it’s nice to have somewhere to go during the school day where they can spend time with their classmates and take a break from the stress of the working week. As the year goes on and the advisory schedule gets more consistent, student opinions may change- but as of now, most students have a strong preference toward either clubs or Advisory.

Black Friday is very popular. People go to shop for gifts for the holidays and other occasions. Going out on Thanksgiving night super late is fun, but it isn't very practical for people with kids or who can't stay out late. Luckily for us, there are now a lot of online Black Friday deals but there are also deals before and after to make it easier.

In a recent New York Times article, it stated that Black Friday is no longer just a single day, and there isn’t a need to get up really early the day after Thanksgiving. Some stores are already starting their Black Friday deals. Walmart and Best Buy have already kicked off the sales. 

Shelby Geraghty, a sophomore at Brown High School, stated, “I think it's good for consumers, but it is bad for the economy.” 

Some of the best sales are coming from brands like Google and Nintendo. Devices, headphones, kitchen appliances, and much more are going at a very good price. The New York Times said that some of these prices have never been lower. But for some items, this may not be the case.

In a People Magazine article, “Is Inflation Cutting Back Your Black Friday Shopping Deals?, Experts Say Discounts May Not Be as Steep”, Diane Herst said inflation may change some prices. 

"My guess is, you're seeing 5 to 10 percentage points less discounting going on in the environment," Steve Sadove, Mastercard senior adviser and former Saks chairman and CEO, told Yahoo Finance.

With supply chain issues, it makes the price more expensive. But because of that many people see these Black Friday prices and take them for granted. 

Lizzie Rademaker, a sophomore at Brown High School, said “The prices will not be as low this year because things are more expensive and less of a discount then years before.” 

Black Friday will still be a day to get good deals to buy gifts. Although those deals may not be as good as last year, it is still a day to go out and shop with family and friends. Black Friday will be as fun and as hectic as years prior so be sure, if you can, to go out or stay at home to get those Black Friday deals!

‘Taylor Swift’ has quickly become a household name. Having released 12 albums since 2006, she’s essentially reached the peak of her fame- sold-out stadium tours, chart-topping singles, and the like.

Given that fact, it’s no surprise that her 2022 album ‘Midnights’, announced on social media on August 29, 2022, was one of the most-anticipated albums of the year. Longtime fans familiar with Swift’s habit of dropping ‘Easter eggs’ for album titles, themes, features, and songs fought to put the pieces together to decode what the album’s ‘signature’ sound would be. Some fans argued in favor of an alternative folk album in the vein of ‘folklore’ and ‘evermore’, two so-called “sister” albums that were released consecutively at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Still others claimed it would be a complete reinvention- the popular theory was that it might be a rock album, inspired by Fleetwood Mac and Blondie.

The theories only increased in magnitude and confidence when Swift didn’t drop a lead single for the album. Instead, she spent the month of October announcing each album title on her TikTok page in a series called ‘Midnights Madness with Taylor’. The marketing move wasn’t necessarily a shock to fans, as Swift hasn’t released a lead single for an album since the release of ‘Lover’ in 2019.

The real shock came with the album’s official release at midnight on October 21, 2022. Fans who stayed up late to listen were caught off guard when the country-turned-pop-turned-folk “it” girl suddenly turned back to her pop roots.

‘Why is the album kinda bad?’ asked one TikTok user a few minutes after its release. ‘Who gave TS AUTOTUNE?’ Nearly 108 other users agreed in the video’s comments, saying ‘it’s definitely her worst album’ and complaining about the singer’s sudden departure from the alternative sound featured on ‘folklore’. In the hours following the album’s release, the ‘Taylor Swift’ tags on social media were flooded with Swifties disparaging the new album.

As for Brown School opinions on the new album, senior Maura Austin speaks for most Swifties when she says, “When I first listened to it, I was like ‘What, this is so mid, I don’t like it’. I relistened to it, and I’m still not into it. I like less than half the songs.”

Seniors Bea Friesen and Chloe Fitch, as well as sophomore Kaileigh Chesman, are also on the ‘relistening’ train. “I’m still not completely sure about it, but I’ve been listening to it a lot more and some of the songs have really grown on me. Like, I think ‘You’re On Your Own, Kid’ is one of her best songs, but I can’t stand ‘Karma’. I’m, like, trying really hard to enjoy it, but there are some songs I just can’t listen to,” said Fitch.

“I was talking to somebody at Teen Council, and they were trying to like [the album]- because they like Taylor and they wanted to listen to more of her- but it was too similar to ‘Reputation’, and they prefer, like, ‘folklore’. So they were trying to support her, but they just couldn’t get into it,” says junior Janelle Pitmon.

My thoughts on the matter- ‘Midnights’ is definitely a jarring departure from ‘folklore’ and ‘evermore’, so it makes sense to me that it would be an album that requires a little bit of adaptation. My first listen was more to acclimate to Swift’s return to pop, and my second and third relistens were when I started actually listening to the music. There are some corny lyrics, and some of the songs are definitely overproduced (thanks, Jack Antonoff) but the album feels like a lovable cousin to ‘1989’ and ‘Lover’. If you approach it expecting a 2010s Taylor sound rather than something similar to ‘folklore’, the album is definitely easier to enjoy.

For fans of Taylor’s more alternative music that can’t get into the first few tracks of ‘Midnights’, I’d recommend listening to ‘Snow on the Beach’, ‘Sweet Nothing’, and the tracks ‘Bigger Than The Whole Sky’ and ‘High Infidelity’ from the ‘3 a.m.’ deluxe edition of the album. For other Swifties- get back into the 2013-19 frame of mind and consume ‘Midnights’ the way you consumed ‘Reputation’. It works like a charm.

Have you ever wondered if someone shares the same pet peeves as you? Has your friend had a pet peeve that you thought was absurd or confusing? Different perspectives of students have been surveyed to learn about their personal pet peeves, and who knows maybe yours will be mentioned. 

From a survey posted on Google Classroom, a response came in about discussing plans in front of someone outside of the conversation. You might be walking with people and they might discuss plans in front of you and you feel left out. This is a common occurrence that not many people speak up about, but many people need to know about.

Another response was speaking about a very relatable pet peeve, when people ignore you when you say excuse me, especially in the hallways between class so you have to shove past them. Many have experienced this, but it can be hard to speak up for yourself about it, so just like listed above, you have to shove by.

Speaking of hallways, one of the most common responses to the form was people walking slowly and grouping up in the halls. Many people just want to get to their next class but there are big groups in the middle of the hallway, sometimes in a straight line blocking the entire hallway. This loops back to people not listening in the halls.

Before writing this article, I thought most responses would be about teachers and classes, however from the interviews I've gathered, many are more social pet peeves and socialization pet peeves, whether they be the way they talk to people or the way people talk to each other.