The chatter quiets down in the audience as the crowd settles in the Patil theater. Arushee Bhoja (12) feels the rush of adrenaline and calms herself with the thought of accomplishment. The feeling of pride overwhelms any doubt she has.

Music has played a huge role in Arushee’s life. In sixth grade, Arushee went to David Hart, the previous instrumental music teacher at the middle school and now at the upper school, and joined the sixth grade band. She played the acoustic guitar, which did not match with wind and brass instruments but confidently continued to lead the group in its endeavors.

“She just does a phenomenal job of leading and what’s amazing to me is if you rewind back to that sixth grade year and then you take a step back and look at her senior year, it’s almost that same love that I saw with guitar is now in her oboe playing,” said Hart.

Starting in seventh grade, Arushee decided to try out a new instrument to join orchestra with. Ultimately, she chose the oboe, which Hart recognizes as a difficult instrument to play.

“She just jumped right in. Oboe is not an easy instrument to get started on, and she has just blossomed. She is now one of the strongest oboe players I have heard at Harker” said Hart.

Devanshi Mehta (12), her best friend since third grade, jumped on to explain that Arushee has flourished not only as a musician, but also as an individual in the ten years she has known her.

“I look at her now and I realized how everything she’s done for herself, everything she does, just accumulates and she’s become such a creative, well rounded, global minded individual whom I really admire,” said Devanshi.

While she loves performing, Arushee admits to being nervous about messing up and even skipping auditions because of that fear. Ultimately though, she feels that performing gives her a voice and control of the situation.

“I always want to do a good job because I am a perfectionist. It’s very empowering, though, to be given the opportunity to perform,” said Arushee. “The performance is really in your hands, which is one of the main reasons why I enjoy it.”

Arushee also believes that the stress of being a leader can sometimes overwhelm her, but she knows the pride factor outweighs any nervousness she has before performances.

“The feeling of performing, doing well, and being proud is the best feeling to have. Although at times it is really overwhelming to learn difficult music and play in front of large crowds, the feeling of doing a good job is rewarding enough,” said Arushee.

While her creativity shines in the orchestra, her creativity also does in writing. Arushee has found that journaling [her emotions] helps alleviate any stress that she has from orchestra and from her daily life.

“Journaling relieves me of stress and helps me solve any problem that I have. When I am anxious about a situation, I write down what different factors could be affecting that, which helps me resolve the issue,” Arushee said.

She also believes that journaling has improved her qualities since she started writing. In the past four years, she has tremendously grown as a person from writing in her journal.

“It’s really nice for me to have a tangible object that includes all the different aspects of my life. It helps me to improve myself as a person,” said Arushee. “I can reflect so much and see overtime how I’ve changed. It helps me be the person I want to be because I have a way to reflect on the things that are happening to me.”

Her younger sister, Arohee Bhoja (10) admires her older sister for certain traits such as her strength and will power, which Arushee has learned from journaling.

“I admire her tenacity and refusal to give up even in the face of adversity. She’s very perfectionistic about the smallest things. She often comes to me for advice about messing up tiny details in her journal or feeling unprepared for a test when she studied for hours,” said Arohee. “It’s really inspiring how she is so devoted to everything she does, and how she is so conscious about little mistakes and determined to fix them.”