When I walked through the lobby on the first day of school, everything about Saint Viator looked pretty much the same. After all, it had only been two months since I stepped into school in June for Service and Song camp. The hallway floors were still brown. The lockers were always navy blue. I didn’t even look up at the ceiling tiles, but I assumed they were the exact same, too. Glancing around, I was looking forward to a calm senior year in the same comfortable, unchanged building.

Sure, maybe there were improvements here or there: repainted walls in Mahoney Gym, fixed toilets in the boys’ bathroom, and ketchup dispensers in Querbes Hall that actually worked and didn’t make me push down the handle twenty times. But besides the highlights, that was really it. Two months, I thought, sighing in relief—how much construction can be done to a school building in two months?

Then I walked into my first period class, glancing up to a big gray box stuck to the classroom wall right above the doorway. An LED display read the date and time down to the second. Cool, I thought, new clocks, even in the hallways, that’s convenient. My guess about those “clocks” was disproven as soon as an overpowering riiiiiiiiiing erupted from its… speaker? No, that huge gray box wasn’t just a souped-up clock—it was our school’s new sound system.

First off, you’ll hear the speakers before you see them—They’re loud. Very loud. The thrummy, distorted music during passing periods, incessant blarings for morning prayer, and worst of all, the warning beeps before announcements rampage classroom lessons with no end in sight. For the many times my classes have been interrupted, it’s not uncommon to see someone jump or even scream from the speakers’ explosive volume, destroying classroom concentration in an instant. The speakers aren’t even consistent with the quality of sound they deliver, where on some days morning prayers will sound like someone whispering through the microphone.

Oh, and if you were looking forward to the speakers playing a normal ringing sound effect, just like a real bell would, you’d be disappointed—instead, this one plays an ear-shattering three-second boop sound that bears no resemblance to a normal school bell. The noises will always be on time, waiting until you’re leaning against the doorway half-asleep, begging to be unleashed through the halls just as you end an exhausting class.

The new speakers, to me, aren’t very convenient—or necessary. Just last year, I thought the previous sound system was good enough. Maybe not perfect, but you could hear morning prayer, afternoon announcements, and hype music for sports games just fine without having to cover your ears. It’s understandable that these speakers are new, and new things will take some getting used to. Even so, if they’re really here to stay, I do hope improvements will be made in the future: clearer audio, controlled volume, and a sound effect change or two wouldn’t hurt.