While most enjoy listening to upbeat music before a sports game, Varun Haltore (12) prepares for his games by dressing up and listening to relaxing music.

“I know a lot of guys like to listen to pumped up music, that’s not really my style,” he said.

The most important decision he ever made was joining the baseball team at age six, due to its similarity with cricket.

“Well, my dad actually played cricket, and baseball is the most similar sport to cricket he had, so he suggested it because he understood the game and he could teach me,” Varun said.

Ever since then, the sport of baseball has held a spot of great importance in his life.

“I’ve met so many people, gone so many places, and without that, I wouldn’t be the person I am today,” he said.

At little league, he happened to meet some of the most influential people in his life.

“My baseball coaches from little league taught me the importance of working hard, and also having fun,” Varun said. “They taught me you have to have fun while you are doing something, or else you will never be able to do it to the best of your abilities, which I think is pretty important in life.”

Baseball is also what brought his most important possession into his life: his baseball glove.

“I’ve had it for six or seven years, and wherever I am. It’s either on me or in my car, and I take it wherever I go,” Varun said.

His love of the sport also reflects his sociable personality.

“The reason I love it so much is that it requires teamwork, like one person can’t win a game for his team, and you really have to have chemistry with your entire team and you have to be a team player. It’s important for both the game and life, which I guess is why I really like it,” he said.

Varun says that he loves telling stories.

“I guess because you get to share your stories, you get to share your ideas and you just get to experience life to the fullest,” he said.

He is motivated by self improvement, which shapes even his definition of success.

“What motivates me? Wanting to become a better person and a better individual as a whole, because at the end of the day, anything you do, you’re doing it for yourself, and I feel that if it’s not making you better, then it’s kind of like moot at that point,” he said. “I think success for me is reaching my potential, doing the best I can. For me, there is no real hard ceiling or boundary to what success is, it’s just the best that I can do.”

He is passionate about music as well.

“Music comes a lot from my home, my mom and dad played a bunch of music from any genre imaginable; they played hindi music, they played jazz, R&B, rock, and I think that just stuck with me ever since” he said.

He followed that passion later in life and defied expectations.

“In eighth grade, in band I switched from playing playing trumpet to bass clarinet, which I guess nobody really expected, and the conductor at that time, she didn’t think we’d have any bass clarinets because they both graduated, and I said, ‘Hey, I’ll switch,’ which was a really fruitful experience for me,” he said “I learnt to play them in the summer between seventh and eighth grade, I went and took classes and everything. It was my first time playing a woodwind instrument, so it was pretty different.

Sadly, he has not been able to play bass clarinet  much anymore, but has switched back to trumpet in orchestra.

In the end,Varun hopes to be remembered for his personality.

“I hope to be remembered as a kind and funny guy who just made people smile,” he said.