![“[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)
Humans of Harker: Tiffany Zhu immerses herself in stories
“I write fictional stories, and I spend a lot of time thinking about situations. Even though I’m trying to delve into other people’s psychologies when I do this sort of thing, at the same time, I feel that helps me satisfy my desire to figure out how people think. It’s a way for me to explore what sort of ways people think about the people around them or their settings. That’s one of the things I find most rewarding about creative work and creating characters and plots and imagining settings,” Tiffany Zhu (12) said.
February 12, 2017
Since middle school, senior Tiffany Zhu has devoted her time outside of school to writing. In seventh grade, she read Crime and Punishment with fervor, though she didn’t quite understand its themes at first. After searching for similar authors and works, she discovered the The Brothers Karamazov, which turned out to be her all-time favorite novel and realized the significance of both books’ ideas.
“I could actually find and understand why this novel was important, and if I were to investigate them I’m sure I could write a thesis about it, and I’m sure people have so that’s how it all started,” Tiffany said. “After that, I started thinking about Dostoyevsky and that maybe I should started looking at people who write in similar styles as him or from the same time period or from the same country.”
A ritual she’s kept since sixth grade is writing a journal entry on her laptop every day. She uses this outlet to channel her thoughts or stress onto paper.
“Sometimes, I write a lot. Sometimes, I just put down a to-do list, but it’s a habit I keep every day. It actually takes a surprising amount of time,” she said. “Sometimes, I spend almost two hours writing about stories as well, but sometimes I just spend two hours drafting a story and then I’d realize that this has nothing to do with the homework I’m supposed to be doing. It is something I have kept up day to day, and I’m actually pretty proud of all my entries dating back to 2010.
She often look at her previous entries, dating all the way back to sixth grade. After comparing her recent entries to entries back from 2010, she’s realized how much she has changed.
“[If I could go back in time, I would] tell myself, ‘You’ll realize how little you actually know, and you’ll appreciate that you don’t really know everything and that you can’t learn some things,” she said. “Because you don’t know that much, all that stuff every day is an opportunity to learn. It’s wonderful.”
While talking to a friend on a school trip to Switzerland, Tiffany encountered a powerful phrase that has influenced the way she looks forward to her future.
“[I] was speaking to a friend, and her motto for that trip was ‘no regrets.’ I thought that was a really good point, and in particular, that phrase made me realize that that trip is really only happening once and in a such a time in my life when I had just graduated sophomore year,” she said. “I just left what I thought was the most intellectually exploratory year of high school and so my mind was buzzing with this fervor, and I seized upon the phrase ‘no regrets.’ That’s a really powerful phrase. I still think that it’s a good way for me to judge what I should do or what I want to do.”
