Despite her 5’9’’ stature, Karina Butani (12) maintains a low profile at Harker. She lives in Pleasanton and spends three hours in the car on an average day, making it difficult to spend time with her friends and peers from San Jose.

“In Pleasanton, it’s easier for me to meet people,” she said. “I can’t go to San Jose and meet friends, because it’s really far. When I go home, I have a whole other set of friends, and a whole other set of places that I go. It’s sort of like two different worlds. It’s a different atmosphere, different people.”

Living in Pleasanton has taught her to value every moment she spends with her friends and peers at school.

“It’s really hard to meet my friends on days besides school days, so I make the most of my conversations with people that I meet anywhere at anytime,” Karina said. “I enjoy talking to different people that I meet during the day. If someone approaches me, I’d be glad to have a conversation with them about anything.”

Karina’s friend Shaya Zarkesh (12) knows her for her spontaneity and her fun-loving personality.

“I feel like a lot of people in high school are just cautious or hesitant to do things, and just to make plans, but she really doesn’t have that,” he said. “If she sees something cool, like a concert she wants to go to—she goes to fairs and whatnot—if she sees something she wants to go to, she’ll go to it, and she’ll have fun.”

Karina doesn’t like worrying too much about the future; she tries to focus on what she’s doing at the moment instead. When she talks to the people around her, the obstacles and complications in her life fade into the background.

“I try to be as outgoing as possible the first time you meet me. It’s hard, because when you first meet someone they think you’re a different person,” Karina said. “When people first meet me, they think I’m really introverted, but when they get to know me it’s like an opposite person. But it’s fun to prove people wrong, like—surprise, this is who I really am.”

Karina spends her lunches socializing by the couches in Shah. She wears a bright purple sweatshirt emblazoned with the word Cantilena, a nod to her interest in choir.

“Singing is a big part of me,” she said. “I’ve been doing it since I was five, but music in general is important to me, too. It’s just the expressing myself that makes me like it so much.”

Karina’s musical journey has deep roots, starting from singing Indian classical music when she was four. She recalls that she was forced into it at first. The tables turned when she was around ten, however, when she started singing in choir and doing musical theater, specifically songs from Broadway classics like Spring Awakening, Tarzan, and Hairspray.

“I don’t know what changed my mind when I was ten. I think I just decided that I wanted to branch out and sing more genres as I started listening to more music,” Karina said. “Now, I listen to pretty much everything, like literally everything. I have a really broad music taste.”

Karina listens to Khalid, Kehlani, Blackbear, Flume and Hermitude the most. Hermitude is the first EDM artist that Karina listened to, and she recalls on why she likes their music: because there aren’t many words, the song is left up to her interpretation.

“I can relate the songs to my own experiences,” Karina said. “Experiences being my day in general, like the people I meet and have conversations with and the places I go.”

Karina’s appreciation for many different genres of music reflects her easygoing personality.

“For me, going with the flow means I try to focus on what I’m doing at the moment instead of worrying too much about the future,” she said. “I enjoy talking to different people that I meet during the day: like, if someone approaches me, I’d be glad to have a conversation with them about literally anything, life, music, their day.”