![After placing second in their respective LDEs at the Capital District contest in early November, freshman Jesus Jaramillo-Gallegos and freshman Wyatt Pickett will compete at the Area XII LDE contest in Georgetown on Nov. 23. Jaramillo-Gallegos is competing in Greenhand Spanish Creed Speaking, while Pickett’s LDE is Greenhand Creed Speaking. “Honestly, [I’m excited for] just traveling around, maybe meeting more people,” Jaramillo-Gallegos said. “And [I’m] nervous about probably just not being able to define my weak areas. I feel like I did decent for my first time ever doing this. I just think it’s fun.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Navy-and-Yellow-Simple-Group-Project-Presentation-1200x675.png)
![Holding up T-wolves, the tour group poses for a picture in the Chinese classroom. Sophomore Lydia Ou, junior Phu Trung and senior Yushan Pan gave a tour to Taiwanese diplomat Andrea Yang on Nov. 8. “I was so excited when I heard I would get to give the tour because it’s a big deal,” Ou said. “She’s from the US embassy for Taiwan, so she’s really important. I’m so privileged [to get this opportunity] and I’m so excited.” Photo by Skyler King](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Main-Taiwan.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, sophomore Olivia Mahlmeister and seniors Samantha Jameson, Adhit Eswaramoorthi and Justin Khadavi celebrate completing first chamber in the Congress Meet. All four students advanced to the final chamber. “Out of the 20 kids in the final chamber, we had a seventh, ninth, 11th and 13th, and they took the top four to move on to state,” AP US History and Debate teacher Josh Marsh said. “[Even though] we didn't make state this year, all four of them moving on [and] placing is phenomenal.” Photo courtesy of Josh Marsh](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024-Regional-Congress-Team.jpg)
![Holding the Grand Nationals trophies, drum majors Helashi Wijayawardhana, Abigail Pettey and Eddy Kim pose for a photo. The BOA Grand Nationals competition took place in Indianapolis on Nov. 14-17. “My favorite thing was just looking back at the field, and I was like, ‘Oh, crap. I know all of their names, I know who all of them are’,” Wijayawardahana said. “It's just insane to me that I was able to make so many connections. [Being a drum major] taught me how to build relationships with people who I’m not really that similar to, and how to juggle a ton of things all together.”
Photo courtesy of CPHS Band SmugMug](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/AJC.GrandNatsFinals-169-1200x801.jpg)
![Standing in front of a small audience, senior Kimberley Walters shares a social criticism poem titled “Pity the Nation” by Lawrence Felinghetti. Every month, sponsored by the poetry club, the library hosts a poetry reading. “I never thought I would be interested in [poetry readings] because I’m not the biggest poetry fan,” Walters said. “I think poetry is a very succinct way to express feelings and get a story across. Whereas lots of books have a span of a whole story, but it’s put in a lot of words. The power of poetry is that you can be so succinct within, and there’s a lot of power within the words that are used.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KIM-1200x800.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, Author Ehigbor Okosun, members of Page Turners, and other students reflect on the author's visit. “I thought the visit was great,” Senior Amia De Leon said. “It was interesting talking to her and [getting to know] her process and her thoughts and books in general. But I think the reason it went well [was that] people got to ask questions. I'm glad that she said so much in response to the questions and it wasn't just one and done. [The author’s responses] felt very articulate.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Sebastian-5-1200x800.jpg)
![Delicately placing the string to form the shape of a cornucopia, seniors Haley Burton and Avery Nelson create the November arrangement for the Flower of the Month Club. This club is led by Advanced Floral Design Students and provides a monthly arrangement to community members who subscribe to receive them. “I think flower of the month club is a really impactful way to show your loved ones ‘hey I really care about you,’ or even if they’re just for yourself, they’re a little pick-me-up throughout the month that [say] ‘I’m doing ok, and these flowers make my day a little bit brighter,” Nelson said. “I like giving people flowers because people value the flowers more and they value themselves more.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Ava-Holmes-3-edit.jpg)
![Standing in front of the field at a freshman football game, cheerleader freshman Jacob Gaudreau along with teammate freshman Bella Gibson pose for a photo during halftime of game. “[Cheer has] definitely given me a much more outgoing personality,” Gaudreau said. “I used to be very introverted, so it's definitely made me more extroverted towards people.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Ingrid-204-1200x800.jpg)
![Holding a wooden pizza toy, senior Taylor Peterson plays with small children in Bucaramanga, Colombia. During the summer, Peterson traveled to Colombia to help build an elementary school that only had two classrooms but five or six grades with one teacher. “We add[ed] two more classrooms,” Peterson said. “It’s kind of hard when you have two or three grades in one classroom and you only have one teacher. It’s very hard to actually get some beneficial learning. [The extra classrooms will give the students] a better quality of education because they’ll actually have a place specific for their learning.” Photo by Taylor Peterson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Taylor-P.png)
![Sucking in a breath of air, freshman Lily Pope competes in the 200 yard individual medley. On Oct. 25, the swim team competed in the AISD Swim Invitational. Overall, the girls team took second place and the boys team came in eleventh. “My favorite stroke is butterfly because I do the best in that stroke,” Pope said. “I feel like [butterfly] can test how [your ability] to convince yourself to keep going. The hardest part of swimming is convincing yourself to stay strong and keep pushing during a hard race [when] everything is tired.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/POPE-1200x804.jpg)
![Swinging with his arm extended, senior Nolan Park hits the ball smoothly over the net and to the opponent’s side. Park is one of four varsity tennis captains and helped the team win district championships. “Winning district champs was a pretty awesome feeling,” Park said. “We had lost to Liberty Hill a couple of weeks before, but when we played them [again], we came out and really took care of business. We took them out and it was just a really awesome night.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Kassidy-419.jpg)
![Standing proud, varsity senior athletes Rafael Escobar, Griffin Jacobs, Jakob Martin, and juniors Jackson Springer and Jack Morris pose with their newly earned medals. The varsity team finished third out of 14 teams on Sept. 25. “The team's primary goal is to win the district championship,” head coach Cody Price said. "We're confident that with our action plan in place, we can accomplish this mission. [For the next tournament], our preparation involves assessing our strengths and weaknesses, celebrating milestones and creating individual development plans." Photo courtesy of Cody Price](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/golf.jpg)
I would say that Sabrina Carpenter and I go way back. Since her days on “Girl Meets World,” I have consistently kept up with her journey through acting and making music. When she announced her new album, “Short n’ Sweet” in June, I immediately knew that this was going to be the album of the summer.
On April 11, Carpenter released the first single off of the album titled “Espresso” along with a music video on April 12. In my opinion, this song was definitely the song of the summer. I feel like this song was around every corner and in every video I would see on TikTok. The second single from this album was released on June 6, titled “Please Please Please.” Both of these singles definitely have that tropical summer sound to them and I was instantly excited to hear how the rest of the album was going to compare.
Wrapping up the summer, “Short n’ Sweet” was released on Aug. 23. This was such a highly anticipated album for me after having waited all summer. I was super excited to finally get to sit down and listen to my childhood icon’s new masterpiece.
Upon its release, the album debuted at Number One on Billboard’s top 200 albums chart, according to Billboard. On social media, masses of praise and positive reviews were flooding my For You Page. In my opinion, the adoration of this album is 100% valid, and I genuinely think that this is one of the best albums that I have listened to. Carpenter also announced a tour for this album, starting on Sep. 23.
The album opens with the track, “Taste,” that came along with a music video. I feel like this song really allows for a “taste” of how the rest of the album is going to sound, and I just love how catchy the song is. The music video is also special to me because it stars actress Jenna Ortega in it, making it sort of a Disney reunion for me. The music video involves Carpenter and Ortega trying to take revenge on each other because of an ex-boyfriend through gory attempts at killing each other, ending with them becoming best friends. What I love about the music video is all of the references to horror movies such as “Death Becomes Her.” While I love this music video, I would definitely stay away from it if you’re eating or sensitive to blood because it can be pretty intense in some scenes.
Jumping ahead to the fifth track of the album, “Coincidence,” I would say that this is probably my favorite song off of this album. The guitar instrumental, the catchy sound to it and the lyrics all make this song so satisfying to listen to. The guitar strumming instrumental definitely gives this song a more animated sound, and it brings energy to the lyrics. This one is definitely my favorite because it’s constantly stuck in my head, and I think that it’s just such a fun song to listen to.
The eighth track, “Dumb & Poetic,” is definitely one of my favorites in terms of lyrics. This song is slower than the rest, but I think that it makes Carpenter’s vocals stand out more which is why this track is one of my favorites. I especially like the lyrics “gold star for highbrow manipulation” because they really capture how Carpenter was manipulated and how she fell for someone who she thought was sophisticated, when in reality they were not.
The next track, “Slim Pickins,” is a little different from the rest of the album because it brings more of a country sound to it. The guitar definitely adds more of a folk sound and a twang to the song. I also think that the lyrics in this song are really clever, with some of my favorites being, “this boy doesn’t even know the difference between there, their, and they are,” which I think is so funny because it’s obvious that a lot of people don’t know the difference between those words. I think that this song definitely adds a little complexity to the album and I like how it’s different from how the rest of it sounds.
The last track of this album, “Don’t Smile,” is, in my opinion, the most underrated song off of this album. I think that the lyrics and Carpenter’s angelic vocals perfectly wrap the album up and add a sweet sound to it. I especially love the lyrics, “cry because it’s over,” because I think that they really add a note of finality to the album and it almost sounds like she’s telling listeners to cry because the album’s over.
Overall, I absolutely adore this album. I think that it is such an addicting album to listen to and I think that it was the perfect way to wrap up the summer. While the album is pretty short, I think that the lyrics, sounds and structure of the album make it the sweetest album to listen to.
I give this album 10/10 stars.
