Debatably the most important—and unpredictable—holiday in December, this year’s Spotify Wrapped Day fell on Dec. 4. Technically, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and Hanukkah remain the most celebrated...

Entering into Our Little Secret knowing only that it was a Netflix Original Christmas film starring Lindsay Lohan, my expectations were quite low.  So low, in fact, that when it proved to have some...

A compulsion to reach for your phone, to check for a new notification, to make sure you haven’t missed any earth-shattering events since the last time you flipped over your compact device—sound familiar?...

The air is stuffy and warm, and keeping my eyes open feels like a losing battle. Half of me cannot handle another voice, another statement, another human within my 10-foot radius. The other half recognizes...

If you’ve attended FHC, you know—or know of—Larry DeBoer. Maybe he introduced you to the empires that dominated the ancient world as a seventh grader. Possibly, he helped you become a better athlete...

My countless thank yous go out… To Autumn, for giving me the absolute best GAHA moments You could easily just revisit my Countless Thanks from 2023 to get a solid idea of how I feel about our 11-year...

"I like your images but I'm broke. Give me your photos, I'll give you clothes.” In 1997, fashion designer Lee Alexander McQueen, better known as just Alexander McQueen, befriended photographer Ann...

Relocating from Lowell High School—a longtime rival of FHC—new assistant principal Jacob Strotheide could be considered “the enemy.” However, even before his time at CHS, Strotheide has been involved...

With Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat, Charli XCX created an entirely new standard for deluxe albums.  Not one for ambiguous titles, XCX released the accurately-named compilation...

Whether you possess coordination or not, Just Dance is an active, entertaining video game that caters to dancers of all levels.   Originating in Paris and rapidly spreading across the globe, the video...

As elementary schoolers, Halloween was made complete only by the festive school parties and extensive parades around campus.  With students eagerly donning outfits that put them one step closer to...

Through her 2024, lime green album, Charli XCX transformed the meaning of the word “brat.” Once an ordinary noun, possibly evoking images of the 2000s fashion dolls, XCX turned the term into a common...

While junior Haley Groesser loves to make food, she is not to be confused with a cook.  Inheriting her love of crafting delicious delicacies from her family, Haley has had a passion for baking since...

In sixth grade, while I didn’t have much of an idea what I was doing or how to execute it, I wanted to achieve the alternative style that flourished under the heat of the pandemic.  In seventh grade,...

Reflecting the tumultuous state of the United States in the early 2020s, Alex Garland’s Civil War depicts the country’s demise.  Set in the near-future, the U.S. has split into factions, with the...

Kicking off her joint tour with pop star Troye Sivan, Charli XCX showed us that, yes, she is all about throwing parties. Releasing her first full album in 2013, Charli XCX is no stranger to the music...

As an upperclassman, many find freshman year to have been regrettable.  From not taking enough of the “right” classes to not spending enough of that now coveted free time with friends or even just...

Born and raised in Chicago, Principal Jonathan Haga “lost the war” to his wife upon moving from the bustling city to suburban Michigan, where she is originally from. Haga—a proud Chicago Bears fan...

“I'm ba-ack!” cried Maleficent in the original Descendants’s iconic scene as she crashed Auradon’s coronation ceremony.  Now, in 2024, Descendants: The Rise of Red seems to proclaim a similar...

Contains mild spoilers from the first to fourth seasons of Gossip Girl.  As a devoted Gossip Girl viewer and fellow fashion enthusiast, it makes perfect sense that I would love Jenny Humphrey.  Unfortunately,...

Recently, Pixar’s popularity has been waning.  Elemental, Lightyear, Turning Red, and Luca—all Pixar films released in the past three years—have underperformed at the box office. Whether due...

John Green has the ability, more than virtually any other young adult author, to capture the teenage experience accurately.  Although some of his novels are arguably much lower quality than others...

I wonder if what I write makes sense.  The words might read scattered; arbitrary whims that fill the page so that they sound like something coherent.  This is true in general and true for me, but...

Being one of FHC’s most beloved teachers, it may be surprising to learn that, as a teenager, Steve Labenz hated school.  While he had a few exceptional instructors, the majority were simply awful....

300,000 items. 47% of toys and children's books. 1.2 trillion dollars.  Sophomore year has gone well.  It has gone stressfully, exasperatingly, quickly. I just wore the same dress I wore when...

Sunscreen feels like melting wax slathered across my skin and smells like the 4th of July.  I avoid touching any pristine piece of furniture despite my inclination to plop down on the dark gray couch....

WILLOW’s music has never particularly stuck out to me.   When it was omnipresent in 2021, I casually respected “Meet Me At Our Spot!” by THE ANXIETY—a duo composed of WILLOW and Tyler Cole....

Gen Z, as a whole, is chronically online.  While this might not be true of every single individual in the population, in the United States specifically, it’s undoubtedly a general trend.  In...

Eva Harshman, Editor-In-Chief of The Central Trend, began her writing journey with partially made-up personal narratives.  An avid storyteller by the ripe age of a first grader, she used the elementary...

I’ve come to find that, as much as I may enjoy listening to sad music, it's usually not for me.  However, in attempts to find more non-sad music to listen to, I struggled because I naturally enjoy...

It’s natural that, as she has changed from being an unknown Norwegian artist to a well-established singer with two complete albums under her belt, girl in red’s musical sound has shifted. However,...

For over a year, I defined my music taste as sad.  I kicked off the beginning of 2023 with Mitski and concluded it by shuffling Cigarette After Sex’s discography in the fall. In the middle, “Chinese...

Excited to abandon the humdrum commotion of high school, senior Mary Kate Dean is enthusiastically preparing to enter the next phase of her life as a college freshman.  “I’m really excited for...

Logically, it would make sense that kids' TV shows would foster safe working environments designed to protect the child actors on set.  In spite of this obvious conclusion, Nickelodeon has the exact...

Unfamiliarity is woven within her racket strings and hair-sprayed braids.  Suddenly, she is no longer timid, not the youngest, and not seeking social instruction. She entered each season with lofty...

Lauren Lutz (pictured low middle) has gained many new friends and experiences through cheer.

While not having a clear favorite between the two classes he teaches at FHC, Christopher Start can reflect fondly on his minimal time at the school thus far.  New to FHC this year, Start has worked...

The pop music industry has been overtaken by vapid, monotonous humming. Aspiring stars’ voices are warped to sound illusory, warbling uninspiring words that appear computer-generated.  In the...

There was once a mischievous girl who was my closest confidant.  She fabricated enough narratives to account for the both of us, sometimes for my benefit, but other times to deceive me.  She spun...

Britney Spears’s autobiography, The Woman in Me, was an amateurly compiled collection of thoughts. Though I wasn’t initially planning on reading Spears’s self-written story, after stumbling across...

Have you ever hated someone so much that you wish you could travel back to the Renaissance, have them locked into a pillory, and throw tomatoes at them? For junior Sully Lower, this fantasy may sound...

Perhaps one of the most merchandised franchises in the world, Sanrio, has marketed virtually every item imaginable. Their popular characters—including Hello Kitty, My Melody, and Kuromi—have found...

Each autumn, I begin to run out of time.  At fifteen, the fall progressively overtook the sweltering summer—unfit for the rigid school schedule—and, in the transition, my memories melted and chaos...

Being a lover of the outdoors, junior Adrienne Latunski tries to maximize her time spent outside as much as possible.  “Mainly, [being active and outside] makes me feel happy and better about myself...

First being introduced to the song, the sound waves crashed against the walls of the car, louder than I would’ve played music on my own.  My memory has clouded since, but my photo library tells me...

I am obsessed with Pinterest.  As my bio states, “This is where I live.”  Each week, looking at my screen time, my most used app is virtually always Pinterest.  As such a big Pinterest...

Even though opting for comfort over dressing up is a commonality around FHC, within the school, numerous students love to express themselves with varying styles and clothing choices.  For junior Alex...

Thirty pairs of scattered shoes, only a few matched up with their corresponding pair, litter the spacious entryway.  I add my obnoxiously neon slides to the group, but make sure mine are positioned...

I used to love musicals.  Now, I enjoy watching them. In person. In movie format, however, not so much.  When new musical film adaptations are released in theaters, I will generally go to watch...

Junior Addison Sanford has always known that horses held the top spot as her favorite animal.  Beginning at age five, Addison has been immersed in the world of horse riding, and, at 14 years old, she...

The more years pass me by, the shorter each of them seems. As a child, a year felt like a lifetime. 365 days made up an immense period that millions of distinguishable activities and events could fill....

one of my favorite moments and photos from my 2023.

It seems that winter holidays are held on a pedestal when compared to any other celebrations during the year. Specifically, in the United States, Christmas is brought to the forefront of the media even...

In the past three months, I have had to do more presentations than I ever have had in my entire academic career.  It seems that in virtually every class, I have been required to present assignments...

Senior Sofia Terry has painted equations, planets, and windows, among other seemingly random objects, to make FHC hallways a bit brighter.  As a sophomore, Sofia began attending FHC’s art club meetings...

I, like the majority of children, had seemingly random obsessions on which I fixated as a child.  To clarify, by childhood, I mean the years between third and eighth grade, otherwise known to some...

To Ella Peirce, for being the Taylor Swift to my Lana Del Rey I’m so glad that I can say that we have been best friends since kindergarten. You’ve really been there for every single thing I’ve...

Do not watch Choose Love. Recently, in attempts to stay relevant, Netflix has been attempting to make its content more interesting for viewers through entertainment additions such as interactive films. Having...

Within FHC, a new club has joined the extensive variety of groups that already regularly meet: The Spanish Club, which gathers every other Tuesday within the school and during the off-weeks outside of...

Simply, the weather is flawless.  The season of autumn brings the superlative tiny time slot when the crisped tree leaves drop and the sun emerges just enough so that we don’t grow tired of it.  I...

Boygenius is the next leading trio in the music industry. The group consists of three well-known indie artists: Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker. As a trio, the group released their first...

Senior Katie Cushman knew that Spanish would not work for her.  An abundance of students choose to go the route of a spoken word language when enrolling in classes. However, Katie knew that the latter...

It is common knowledge that clothing trends cycle every few decades. Maybe you’ve been shopping for back-to-school clothes at the mall and noticed the display windows stocked with Y2K clothing like low-waisted...

My first impression of Mitski’s discography was that she created strange, but catchy, music.  Initially, I stumbled upon her exquisite works during the early months of 2022. One of her most popular...