Whenever you see Shreyas Chandrashekaran (12), he’s usually in the gym shooting hoops, tossing the football on the field with his friends during lunch — at least, while he’s not injured from a basketball mishap, as he has been for the past several months. But at school, a side that Shreyas really doesn’t show is vast experience in table tennis.

“I started playing with my dad for fun, because he used to play with his friends for fun in India in college,” Shreyas said. “I realized I liked the sport, and that I was interested in pursuing it as an actual sport.”

Rather than a simple pastime, Shreyas actively pursued table tennis in his earlier years for the ways that it challenged him, both mentally and physically.

“Table tennis is intensely athletic,” he said. “You need a lot of stamina and a lot of core strength to play your peak. For me, what really drew me to it was that you have to be physically strong and mentally strong. You kind of have to have a competitive strategy. You have to time your shots, figure out where they’re going and have a lethal strategy.”

Aside from athletic and mental tests that table tennis provided him, Shreyas had his biggest revelation in his first major tournament. At first, he struggled to overcome opponents that he had practiced with all the way there.

“My first national championships was in 2011, and I was able to place in three different events,” he said. “In the final events, I had to play against my [teammate]. So on the first day, I lost 0-3. I told myself that I gotta figure out what to do to beat him. When it came the next day, I took a commanding 2-0 lead in the match. In the end, he rebounded my strategy and I lost again.”

As Shreyas took these losses in his stride, he discovered his intrinsic motivation and strived to be the best in everything he tried. He learned humility after returning home from the tournament.

“When we returned and came back from the tournament, there was a big party, they were recognizing top finishers,” he said. “One of the top finishers was this friend of mine. I was there standing in the back, silently, without any recognition of my name, and I remember thinking to myself ‘you know what, I was ‘this’ close to getting the recognition.’”

The whole experience opened his eyes to key strategy, one that he applies in table tennis and, eventually, to the rest of his life.

“The important thing is adaptability,” Shreyas said. “I went into the game with one strategy, and it was aimed at attacking his biggest weakness, and the thing is that he started countering that. What I took away from that is that in life, there’s always going to be something that I’m going to try to be the best at. But by adapting and learning from my mistakes and changing my approach, I can end up near perfect, because I personally strive for perfection. Be adaptable and don’t be afraid to embrace change.”

Shreyas carried this lesson going into high school, when he was still discovering the kind of person that he wanted to be. Rather than just be purely academically oriented, he wanted to put his skills in public speaking to use socially. With his unique way with words, Shreyas has made an impact on those around him as well.

“Shreyas really inspired me into being more open emotionally,” Jimmy Lin (12) said. “When I first met him, I was surprised about how upfront and unapologetic he was about his emotions. Getting to know him caused me be a lot more open myself, especially in the way that he’s always willing to listen and be supportive of me whenever I need it.”

Using his adaptability skills, Shreyas is able to make interesting conversation on almost any topic and make good company, just as his friends say about him.

“When you get to know him, he’s really into music and sports, and you can have a conversation with him about any topic, and I think there’s something to be said about that,” Akhil Arun (12) said. “He’s just a great person to be around company-wise.”

His friend Tanay Kamat (12) called him a “true music guru,” noting that “he seems to know the lyrics to every song that anyone plays.”

By the end of his four years at Harker, Shreyas is proud of the person he has become, as he learned along the way how to live in high school.

“I realized that there was more to high school than just sitting with my books and studying, and I realized that instead of following that set formula of study hard, hopefully get good grades, get into a good college, I can kind of learn from the people around me and I can get more social,” he said. “I took those both standing up and I adapted to them I really have no regrets over those experiences because they really shaped who I am as a person. I would rather have those than be the single unifaceted person that I was in freshman year. If I had to do it again, a 100 times over, I would do it the same way.”