For this week’s Staff Picks I had the pleasure of interviewing our newest addition to The Anchor, Xavier Peng ’24. Xavier is our exchange student from China, who is definitely adding some flair to our school with his fantastic fashion sense.

Xavier is one of our school’s number one Swifties, so when I asked him what he’s been listening to, I expected the response I received. Xavier has been streaming Taylor Swift, the 1975 and Charli XCX. He said “I’ve been a fan of Taylor for literally ten years. She’s such an inspiration to me.” He also added, “I like the 1975 because he writes such sarcastic lyrics to judge the social world. He dives right into the deep topics.”

On television, Xavier has been watching Reservation Dogs and Abbott Elementary. He described Reservation Dogs by saying “It portrays the 21st century Native American teens authentically, which isn’t usually something that gets a lot of exposure.” I was genuinely enlightened by his knowledge and interpretations of these tv shows.

Lastly we talked about his top three movies of all time. Those were “Laurence Anyways,” “Love, Simon,” and “The Worst Person In The World.” We chatted about how “Love, Simon” was very influential in the LGBTQ community and even helped a lot of kids come out to their families.

If you see Xavier in the hallway, make sure you say hello and give him a kind PIHS welcome!