Sarisha Kurup’s (12) daily streetwear reflects a myriad of aesthetics. One day, she sports a button-down tucked into wide-legged plaid pants; the next she dons a floral sundress and elegant flats, and the day after, she’s in athleisure. But no matter how varied the individual looks, her clothing always seems inexorably Sarisha. She explained that her rotating style parallels an ever-changing vision of her future.

“I always have a really vivid idea of what I wanted my life to look like,” she said. “But it changes all the time.”

A recent iteration of her future was inspired by the process of preparing for the AP Studio Art show. 

“I’ve always had it at the back of my mind that I would love to be a curator or own a gallery, and I think this really pushed me to the side of gallery type art,” she said. “I really loved the idea of having my own space and being able to put up artists that I want and maybe having a bar or coffee shop on the side.”

Sarisha had considered working as a curator before, but never as a small business owner.

“I always used to say that I wanted to work in an established place like the Met where it feels like a real achievement to move up the ranks because so many people have done it before me,” she said. “This is something that’s scarier because you have to do it yourself, but that’s something that I definitely want to do eventually.” She paused, then added: “We’ll see.”

Sarisha’s conceptions of her future vary often – others include working in fashion and being a journalist. Still, one aspect of her possible futures stays constant.

“I have a very specific vision of myself living in New York,” she said “I can’t imagine myself living anywhere else.”

For someone whose dreams change so often, the vast variety of New York is the perfect canvas for notions of tomorrow.

“I always change the visions of myself and what I want my future to be, but they can always fit into a different character of New York because New York can encompass everything,” she said. “When I imagined myself living in the West Village, I started dressing differently and feeling different. Then I thought I was maybe more Upper East Side, and then I thought that when I had kids I would raise them on the Upper West Side. All the different facets of my personality fit in the different neighborhoods of New York.”

Sarisha’s plans aren’t just goals to which she aspires – they also provide a retreat during hard times, like during the illness and death of her father.

“Planning itineraries and things I’m going to do gives me a lot of energy to keep going. I have a very specific vision of myself living in New York and working and being very satisfied working, but also being able to create art and travel,” she said. “Those are things that have yet to look impossible to me in spite of everything that’s happened. They keep me going.”

Although she acknowledges that it can be dangerous to have such specific expectations for life, Sarisha has faith in her resilience and imagination to carry her through whatever happens.

“That’s the scary thing,” she said of the prospect that she might not love New York, “because I’ve spent so much of my young life planning that that was the place where everything’s going to come true. If it doesn’t, that will be scary, but I think I have an infinite capacity to romanticize things. There will always be a next place.”