You step into advisery.

It’s Monday morning- a dreaded time for most high school students. You are tired and anticipating a week full of quizzes, tests, and homework.

Maybe you have a Starbucks drink to keep you warm or a cup filled with your favorite tea. Maybe you have nothing but your headphones and a song stuck in your head.

You make your way to your seat- the one you always sit at, even though it’s not really assigned.

It’s Monday morning, and you just want to start your week off in a positive way. Maybe that means listening to music.

Maybe it’s catching up on some homework you missed over the weekend. Maybe it’s talking with your friends about that awesome event you attended on Saturday.

The New Trier Guidebook for 2015-2016 says that “each adviser room reflects the combined personalities of the adviser and the advisees.

Ultimately, each adviser room develops a personality of its own as advisees make friends with students from different communities and with varying interests.”

In the advisery system at New Trier, every room is different, as the guidebook explained. As well as having different personalities, some adviseries have scheduled activities that they participate in on a certain day every week.

On those days, when advisery is not filled with free time, there are no problems, no conflicts of interest, because there is no real choice with what to do.

It is the majority of advisery days that need to be discussed. The days with twenty five whole minutes of freedom.

And those days are filled with free time, really. But the thing is, everyone wishes to do different things with their free time.

Some people want to sit quietly and read a book or do their homework. Some people want to talk with their friends about something exciting happening in their life. Some people feel wide awake, while others would much rather still be in bed.

These are all legitimate activities that students spend their advisery doing. Most students at New Trier ask nothing of advisery except for time to do what they wish.

The problem is, you cannot do your homework when someone is blasting a ‘great’ song on their phone.

During free time in advisery, everyone should be free to do what they would like. But they should do so while being courteous and having respect for others.

Whatever your plans for advisery are, they are yours, and yours alone. Just because you want to listen to music does not mean everyone else wants to. This is an important concept that everyone must learn.

You try to relax, and you put on your headphones and play some music. But all of a sudden, your music is overpowered by the voices of the student sitting next to you.

They are talking, or rather yelling, across the room to someone else. Their voice permeates the quiet solitude your headphones had provided.

If you want to play your own music, wear headphones. Do not force everyone in your advisery to listen to your preferred taste in music.

If you have a burning desire to talk to someone on the other side of the room, stand up and walk over to them.

It really doesn’t take a lot of effort. Just think, is what you’re doing disruptive to other people’s free time? If the answer is yes, rethink your actions.

At New Trier, we pride ourselves on being mature and accomplished young adults who know how to handle ourselves in different situations. As such, let’s be respectful of others and not act like barbarians during advisery.