Rishi Chopra (12) wakes up every morning at 5:45 a.m. A long day lies ahead of him, but first, he must contend with the one hour 30 minute commute to school, back and forth.

“I go early in the morning, hit traffic, and barely get to school,” he said. “When I get out of school, it’s peak traffic hours again.”

But instead of wasting the time, Rishi takes advantage of these long periods to himself.

“One idea that I had to adapt to in high school was time management,” he said. “I had to use my time to do everything that needed to get done, whether that meant staying up late or usually working in the car. Ever since junior and senior year, however, I started driving myself. It’s a really tedious trip back home. If I’m having a really happy day, I’ll be playing out my music. If I had a bad day with friends or maybe struggled in practice, I might just shut off the music and just have some time to myself for thinking.”

Going into high school, Rishi chose to challenge himself athletically, playing sports that he enjoyed in middle school.

“Ever since seventh grade, I’ve been pushing myself to be at peak physical fitness level, especially after my grandma passed away in fifth grade,” he said. “She had always been an advocate for me to do whatever I like and live how I need to. The way I dealt with that feeling was through sports.”

Rishi joined the football team freshman year. Unfazed by others’ initial skepticism, he simply resolved to work harder to prove himself.

“One thing that I remember distinctly is that I was in 8th grade and I went to my dad’s office,” he said. “And one of his coworkers asked what sports do I do. I said football, and he said that I was too small for football. This has stuck in my mind. I’ll give people credit, because I guess I wasn’t so menacing and big at the time. But if people hadn’t told me my whole life that I couldn’t play football, I probably wouldn’t be playing football now.”

Since freshman year, Rishi has acclimated to the school community both inside and outside the athletics program. His friends describe him as “compassionate” and “hard-working.”

“[Rishi] will always be there for you regardless of the circumstances,” his friend Nirban Bhatia (12) said. “He’s also very passionate about everything he does. He really digs in deep into whatever class or activity he partakes in and works hard to succeed at the highest possible level. He’s a brother to me—no question about it.”

As a senior reflecting on his four years settling into the community, he is grateful for the relationships he has developed with his teammates and friends.

“I’m pretty happy with where I am,” Rishi said. “I sit with a group of friends that I’m more than thankful for every day. I am thankful to be part of a large sports team and the community that is involved with them. I can go to anybody on the football team, for example, and talk to them about school, life, social life, anything. We’re all honest with each other and that’s the type of community that I want to be in. Same thing with track and field and swimming. I think that I’ve found my place at Harker.”

But getting to his position was anything but easy. Rishi’s choice to push himself carried himself the furthest in his high school career.

“When I came into high school, I wasn’t a big, very fast guy,” Rishi said. “I just came out there because I had the heart for it. That’s one thing that I like to live by, to look at heart rather than build. I pretty much came in, worked my butt off everyday, especially for football in freshman year. I did pretty much everything that I could to push myself to the highest level that I could be. And here I am.”