What may seem like a routine day for senior Eli Brown is, in reality, packed with a mountain of activities, a challenging yet rewarding hike every day from dawn til dusk.
First, the alarm clock sounds. He could choose to snooze; yet instead, he shoots out of bed, gets dressed, and makes breakfast for a 7:00 workout. What may seem like a strenuous task to kick off the day, Eli feels reenergized in the morning, ready to take on a busy day. Many students would groan at a 6:00 alarm, let alone a 7:00 workout. Eli feels extremely grateful for the opportunity to work out early. “That’s been a big part of my life recently, since I haven’t been able to go do track and soccer,” Eli Brown said.
Early Morning — A World of Difference
After his workout at the YMCA, he takes a short drive to the RMHS campus, ready to manage his duties as a club representative for A World of Difference (AWOD). They meet weekly at 8:00 AM on Mondays to talk about new service projects and maintaining current ones. Eli has played a huge role in the club, especially in his junior and senior years.
One project Eli is excited to maintain is the Rockets’ Closet, located in the Guidance Office. This space is tucked away in the back right corner of the office, on the left of Ms. Keaney’s conference room. It holds clothing for any student who needs it.
Monthly, he checks the Rockets’ Closet for new donations and anything that needs to be refolded, reorganized, or could go to a donation site like Goodwill. In addition, he checks the Google Form for requests of specific donations. Maintaining this service is a core piece of the A World of Difference that Eli values deeply. “At first I thought it was just hanging out there, and no one really knew about it, but I was excited to see that people have been taking things,” Eli said.
Luckily for A World of Difference, some students have used the service over the past couple of years. Many are drawn to how effortless the transactions are. “It’s very anonymous, and it’s just kind of there for anyone. Literally, it can be [used] if you spill something on your shirt and you need a new shirt for the day, you can go grab something,” Eli said.
In the 2024-2025 school year, History Teacher Ms. Allison became the club advisor. Eli was one of the former members who leapt into the action. That school year was a moment for change, where the group became heavily invested in doing community service and schoolwide projects. For example, the club runs a bulletin board in the hallway, where they display the history of a month dedicated to a minority group.
Mrs. Allison commended Eli for his leadership skills in the moment of transition for a World of Difference. His composure has allowed the club to further past projects. “[Eli’s] been one of the people to kind of take those moments to reflect, to take ownership of some of the projects that A World of Difference does,” Mrs. Allison noted.
Early Afternoon — RMHS Choir
Fast forward to the middle of the day, Eli has Select Choir. It is an audition group that gets class credit and performs in multiple yearly concerts
Auditions for the select choir take place in the spring, where Eli decided to try out, despite not taking part in choir during middle school. “My sister, who was in Select Choir, really liked it. She’s two years older than me, so she was like, just try out. Just go for it. And I did, and I got in my freshman year,” Eli stated.
Eli reflected on his time with the Crescendudes, the male led a capella group, and expressed his ability to be more free in his singing performance since joining them. “I think once I joined Crescendudes specifically, it was just so fun to be able to share my talent with other people and other talented people, who also are really passionate and talented at singing. And it’s just really fun to express myself and just have fun singing with other people,” he said.
Eli has been able to grow friendships because of Crescendudes. He reunited with Cole Grant (‘26), who is now one of his closest friends. They initially met in middle school. Once Cole and Eli were freshmen, they did a lot of similar activities, one being in the Crescendudes for the Select Choir. They have been singing together in Crescendudes for more than two years, now spending a lot of time together. “I’d have to say that guy’s my best friend. He’s just a great guy, great friend, amazing person,” Cole noted. They continue to connect as friends, hanging out together on the weekends.
As a senior, Eli is President of the Choir Program. He always communicates with the Choir Director. Mr. Mullen, about upcoming events. He recently organized the Jukebox Jamz karaoke night, which was hosted in the Band Room at night on November 21st. He stayed aware of the songs the band needed to rehearse, who needed to bring drinks, and who was getting snacks.
Overall, Eli has had a lot of fun with the Crescendudes. He was able to grow as a singer, make long-lasting friendships, and maintain fun events through Select Choir as a whole.
Mid-Afternoon — Environmental Club
Eli has been a member of the Environmental Club for all four years of his high school career. The club competes at the Massachusetts Envirothon in 4 categories, which include water, soils, forests, and wildlife. “Each of those have tests that are identifying animals or trees or classifying soils and stuff like that, and you do field work too. You’ll perform pH tests, for example, on water,” Eli said. The club also creates a presentation on a “current issue” determined by the Envirothon, which they present to a panel of judges at the competition.
During his junior year, Eli became the club’s publicist and began running their Instagram page, but his leadership role extends beyond creating posts on social media. “One meeting, I was teaching the younger kids how to do tree identification. I’m the publicist, but I’m also a leader for the group that helps teach things,” Eli said.
Eli’s love for the environment is more than just a passion; it’s something he intends to pursue as a career. “I’m probably going to study environmental sciences, or environmental policy, because it’s something I’m really passionate about. I feel like it’s really fulfilling, and it feels like I’m doing my part in the world and making a change, which is really important to me,” Eli said.
Early to Late Evening — Drama Club
As a senior, Eli joined the RMHS Drama Club to participate in their fall musical: Catch Me If You Can. It is based on the 2002 comedy, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks.
This was Eli’s first show, and he played a doctor who interacts with the main characters. He has a funny scene where he acts confused in front of the FBI agent. Grant–Eli’s friend from Crescendudes– was also in the play with Eli and recalls sharing a lot of laughs with his friend. “I was one of the FBI agents, and we were supposed to be grilling [Eli’s character] about this fugitive who was, who used to be working for him, but [Eli’s character] didn’t know anything. And we were, we had all our notes mixed up. We were getting everything wrong. And Eli was just, like, playing off that. [His character] was just, he was confused, and he was just saying funny stuff. He had some great lines.”
The most difficult thing for Eli to do when learning to act in musicals was memorizing dances, especially because it was the first time he had a significant amount of dance choreography. Luckily, the Drama Club held some rehearsals on the weekends, so the actors and crew could be more acclimated to their roles. “The biggest thing was repetition. We just ran the show a million times. I was here till hours and hours rehearsing. “Some Saturdays, we would be here for seven hours just rehearsing,” he said. “So, it’s like muscle memory.”
He strongly appreciates theatre at RMHS, especially because he couldn’t participate in sports any longer. “I got a repeated injury twice. So, I can’t really do any more sports. So, I wanted to do something, and I love the drama community. So, I just went for it and did it,” Eli said. Luckily, Eli was able to find something he enjoys doing and could do for the rest of his senior year. Now, he will be doing electrics with the tech crew for the winter show.
Free Time Favorite — Guitar
One of Eli’s favorite hobbies outside of school is playing the guitar. He started playing the guitar during eighth grade, where he felt compelled to try out a new instrument. “It just kind of happened out of nowhere. I was just like, You know what? I’ve never learned guitar. I’m going to try it, because I played saxophone for four years, and then, like during my last year of saxophone, I was like, maybe I want to do something else. And I decided to do guitar, and then I fell in love with it immediately,” Eli said.
He is a self taught guitarist, as he spent countless hours watching YouTube videos on various guitar skills. Those skills show through, as he has performed at multiple events: multiple choir events and the Jukebox Jamz karaoke night. He continues playing at these types of events because he loves the atmosphere. “Everyone automatically huddles around you and [asks] Can you play this song? And it’s really fun,” Eli said.
In addition to playing at events, he runs a guitar TikTok account. He posts videos of himself playing songs that he enjoys. Currently, he has about 1,000 followers and even reached one million views on a video. He played a song called Sophia by Claro. “And I guess I just played it in an aggressive way for a really soft song that everyone just thought it was the funniest thing ever.” Eli said. “It didn’t really feel real, and I didn’t really wrap my head around [at] the sheer like number of a million like, ‘that’s a lot of people’. And, some of my friends started to find it. It was really funny because I didn’t tell anyone about it before that.”
He finds happiness in having a platform where he can show people how he has progressed as a guitarist. “My beginning videos aren’t very good, but my newer ones are really cool. And it’s just a cool, concrete place to keep all my progress. And have a little file of all my creative things,” Eli said. He plans to continue the account and play the guitar at future Jukebox Jamz karaoke nights and choir concerts. It is one of his favorite ways to pass time outside of school.
The mountain of activities seems overwhelming to many, but Eli makes time for all of these commitments. For Eli, it is worth spending his time on activities that he enjoys, honing in on his passions. In the busy life of high school, many students feel they have to just survive; rock climb through every homework assignment, do the bare minimum on a low stress activity, save personal projects for another day. Eli is able to find joy in all of these activities, because they are his passions. He hopes other students can find themselves through an activity or club.
Eli’s ability to allot time equally to different passions has allowed himself to understand the world better. Grace Brown (‘24), Eli’s sister, reflected on her brother. “I’m proud of him. He’s a good kid, he’s kind and wants to help make the world a better place,” she said.
