![As her hair blows in the wind, senior Brianna Grandow runs the varsity girls 5K at the cross country district meet last Thursday. Grandow finished fourth in the event and led the varsity girls to regionals with a third place placement as a team. “I’m very excited [to go to regionals],” Grandow said. “I’m excited to race in Corpus Christi, and we get to go to the beach, so that’s really awesome.” Photo by Addison Bruce](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/brianna.jpg)
![Broadcast, yearbook and newspaper combined for 66 Interscholastic League Press Conference awards this year. Yearbook won 43, newspaper won 14 and broadcast took home nine. “I think [the ILPC awards] are a great way to give the kids some acknowledgement for all of their hard work,” newspaper and yearbook adviser Paige Hert said. “They typically spend the year covering everyone else’s big moments, so it’s really cool for them to be celebrated so many times and in so many different ways.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/edited-ILPC.jpg)
![Sitting with her friend senior Sohpia Struve at last year’s Austin City Limits Festival, senior Ava Zuniga poses for a picture under a pavilion. They are frequent attendees at ACL, an annual music festival at Zilker Park. “I would recommend seeing a bunch of people,” Zuniga said. “This past year, we camped out for Chappell [Roan] for a really long time. I think the whole point of ACL, [which] is a lot of fun, is that you can go see so many different people, even if you don’t know them. So by camping by one person, it really limits yourself from being able to go see a bunch of people.” Photo courtesy of Ava Zuniga](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/EE9E9484-FE6F-4AA0-B5F5-0C177AB32841-1200x857.jpeg)
![Looking down at his racket, junior Hasun Nguyen hits the green tennis ball. Hasun has played tennis since he was 9 years old, and he is on the varsity team. "I feel like it’s not really appreciated in America as much, but [tennis] is a really competitive and mentally challenging sport,” Nguyen said. “I’m really level-headed and can keep my cool during a match, and that helps me play a bit better under pressure.” Photo by Kyra Cox](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/hasun.jpg)
![Bringing her arm over her head and taking a quick breath, junior Lauren Lucas swims the final laps of the 500 freestyle at the regionals swimming competition on date. Lucas broke the school’s 18-year-old record for the 500 freestyle at regionals and again at state with a time of 4:58.63. “I’d had my eye on that 500 record since my freshman year, so I was really excited to see if I could get it at regionals or districts,” Lucas said. “ State is always a really fun experience and medaling for the first time was really great. It was a very very tight race, [so] I was a bit surprised [that I medaled]. [There were] a lot of fast girls at the meet in general, [and] it was like a dogfight back and forth, back and forth.” Photo by Kaydence Wilkinson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Kaydence-2.7-23-edit-2.jpg)
![As the support team sits and poses for a photo in the cafeteria with the counseling team they eagerly wait to start their day. "We [all] seem to be a team, I get up every day and there's days where I don't want to go to work today, but I'm thankful that I have a job and I'm blessed to have what I have," Christopherson said. Photo Courtesy of Julie Weltens.](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/AF9E8470-10D7-4C91-BF28-EC8F86BAB66C-1200x852.jpeg)
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.
