![“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasn't been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but I've had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. There's so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesn't exist, you can build it yourself," Ishaan Parate said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DSC_8149-900x604.jpg)
![“When I came into high school, I was ready to be a follower. But DECA was a game changer for me. It helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and it's played such a major role in who I've become today. To be able to successfully lead a chapter of 150 students, an officer team and be one of the upperclassmen I once really admired is something I'm [really] proud of,” Anvitha Tummala ('21) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-25-at-9.50.05-AM-900x594.png)
![“I think getting up in the morning and having a sense of purpose [is exciting]. I think without a certain amount of drive, life is kind of obsolete and mundane, and I think having that every single day is what makes each day unique and kind of makes life exciting,” Neymika Jain (12) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Screen-Shot-2017-06-03-at-4.54.16-PM.png)
![“My slogan is ‘slow feet, don’t eat, and I’m hungry.’ You need to run fast to get where you are–you aren't going to get those championships if you aren't fast,” Angel Cervantes (12) said. “I want to do well in school on my tests and in track and win championships for my team. I live by that, [and] I can do that anywhere: in the classroom or on the field.”](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC5146-900x601.jpg)
![“[Volleyball has] taught me how to fall correctly, and another thing it taught is that you don’t have to be the best at something to be good at it. If you just hit the ball in a smart way, then it still scores points and you’re good at it. You could be a background player and still make a much bigger impact on the team than you would think,” Anya Gert (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AnnaGert_JinTuan_HoHPhotoEdited-600x900.jpeg)
![“I'm not nearly there yet, but [my confidence has] definitely been getting better since I was pretty shy and timid coming into Harker my freshman year. I know that there's a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyone's so driven and that has really pushed me to kind of try to find my own place in high school and be more confident,” Alyssa Huang (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AlyssaHuang_EmilyChen_HoHPhoto-900x749.jpeg)
Impromptu: Breaking away from my routine
My experience wearing a suit to school for absolutely no reason.
Photo courtesy of Vivek Bharadwaj
Senior Vivek Bharadwaj poses in a suit. He recently decided to wear a similar outfit but without a blazer) to school to change up his attire and escape his daily routine.
November 21, 2015
On a grey, groggy Thursday morning, I scanned the inside of my closet. T-shirts? Faded jeans? Not today. Through the haze of last night’s calculus cram, I reached for a plain-white, collared Oxford shirt — “This’ll do.”
Of course, grey dress slacks were the only thing that really paired with that shirt, so I grabbed those too. One choice of clothing led to another, and in an hour I strolled into my first period-class wearing a suit sans blazer topped off with a tapered black bow tie. For no reason at all.
There was nothing extraordinary or strange about that Thursday, save for my attire. Well, that’s not entirely true; every conversation I had began with:
“Debate tournament?”
“Nope.”
“Then why the suit?”
I explained to most of them that I had just woken up that morning and decided to wear it. The reactions ranged from enthusiasm to puzzled confoundment and, in the case of one person, even serious fear that I had finally gone around the bend. In any case, nearly everyone asked the same question: “why?”
Sure, I could call it an “experiment in fashion”, since I wear some combination of stripes and jeans for the other 154 days of the school year. Truthfully, on that dismal Thursday morning, I pictured myself in the movie Groundhog Day. In the film, Bill Murray plays a man who lives out the same day, Feb. 1, over and over again. Every night, the world rewinds 24 hours, forcing him to relive the same interactions and events repeatedly.
As school falls into a routine and Thursday the 8th might as well be Thursday the 15th or Thursday the 36th, every day is really indistinguishable from day before or the day after. I wake up every morning, go through classes and homework, relax, and then hit the sack to do it all over again.
The world around me can move in cycles, and I’m okay with that. That won’t stop me from breaking the monotony, putting a taste of the surreal into my world every once in a while. When I walk into my closet with that urge to shake up my outfit, it won’t be planned. It won’t be to attract attention or because I’ve seriously lost my sanity.
It’ll just be a burst of spontaneity.
This piece was originally published in the pages of the Winged Post on November 20, 2015.
