![Setter Emma Lee (9) sets the ball to the middle during the match against Pinewood on Sept. 12. “[I’m looking forward to] getting more skilled, learning more about my position and also becoming better friends with all of my teammates, Emma said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/DSC_4917-2-1200x795.jpg)
![“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasnt been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but Ive had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. Theres so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesnt exist, you can build it yourself, Ishaan Parate said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DSC_8149-900x604.jpg)
![“Animation just clicked in a way. I had been interested in art, but that felt different. [Animation] felt like it had something behind it, whereas previous things felt surface level. I wasnt making that crazy of things, but just the process of doing it was much more enjoyable, Carter Chadwick (22) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screen-Shot-2022-08-16-at-9.44.08-AM-900x598.png)
![“When I came into high school, I was ready to be a follower. But DECA was a game changer for me. It helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and its played such a major role in who Ive become today. To be able to successfully lead a chapter of 150 students, an officer team and be one of the upperclassmen I once really admired is something Im [really] proud of,” Anvitha Tummala (21) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-25-at-9.50.05-AM-900x594.png)
![“[Volleyball has] taught me how to fall correctly, and another thing it taught is that you don’t have to be the best at something to be good at it. If you just hit the ball in a smart way, then it still scores points and you’re good at it. You could be a background player and still make a much bigger impact on the team than you would think,” Anya Gert (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AnnaGert_JinTuan_HoHPhotoEdited-600x900.jpeg)
![“Im not nearly there yet, but [my confidence has] definitely been getting better since I was pretty shy and timid coming into Harker my freshman year. I know that theres a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyones so driven and that has really pushed me to kind of try to find my own place in high school and be more confident,” Alyssa Huang (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AlyssaHuang_EmilyChen_HoHPhoto-900x749.jpeg)
![“My slogan is ‘slow feet, don’t eat, and I’m hungry.’ You need to run fast to get where you are–you arent going to get those championships if you arent fast,” Angel Cervantes (12) said. “I want to do well in school on my tests and in track and win championships for my team. I live by that, [and] I can do that anywhere: in the classroom or on the field.”](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC5146-900x601.jpg)
![“I think getting up in the morning and having a sense of purpose [is exciting]. I think without a certain amount of drive, life is kind of obsolete and mundane, and I think having that every single day is what makes each day unique and kind of makes life exciting,” Neymika Jain (12) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Screen-Shot-2017-06-03-at-4.54.16-PM.png)
Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Location: Miami Zoo
Upon seeing the flamingos:
Mom: Are they real?
Me: No. They put fake birds in a zoo.
Daanish: They have no muscle on their leg. I have more muscle on my leg than they do. I’m muscular.
Hasan: I want ice cream.
Dad: Oh look. Bird.
I never took my family seriously. We are five individuals who live crammed in a house together incapable, of interacting with one another in a normal manner.
Daanish uses his secret powerful weapon that is his head to attack me daily by ramming his skull into me. Hasan puts his “youngest child in the family” persona to win his way with all of us. Dad just lurks around, peering here and there observing what we do without much added commentary. Mom wonders a lot about what she did to make her children so weird, and why she got married at such a young age. Meanwhile, I remain in the corner of my closet, frustrated and alone.
This is the way it has always been. There has always been a giant disconnect in my family. Nobody really knows much about one another’s thoughts and experiences. Each one of us will return home from a life changing event and remain silent about it.
Naturally family vacations were slow torture. I would beat my head against the back seat window, texting furiously to keep up my interaction with the outside world.
But something terribly, yet peculiar happened this presidents week that changed all of that: my cell phone broke. Flat-out stopped working. One week with my family, and I had no outlet of what I identified as “human life.”
In my mind, there was no other way events could possibly get worse. I imagined myself growing more and more frustrated with my family’s tendencies. I envisioned myself snapping at my mom for making some comment and then perpetuating the already false impression my family has of me as a short-tempered, angry teenage girl.
I was wrong. I started an email log when we got to Miami. Every day, I sent out an email to some of my closest friends telling them about the tortures of my trip. The first email I sent out started out with the following sentences: “…In order to survive these next few days during which I am bound to my family, I will do my best to steal my brother’s phone at every chance possible to check my email, and I will borrow his laptop (as I am right now) for lengthier emails at night. Please do respond so as to keep me in touch with the outside world.”
I was forced to give it a shot. I had no other choice other than participating in conversations and hosting a conversation, and I came to realize that I was the one who was the outsider in my family. I never took initiative to look into their lives, and finally, only months before I have to graduate and pack my things, I peeked into their thoughts and found myself thoroughly enjoying them. As much as I could try to express the humor that we share, it would be near impossible because those memories between us are only understood by our family, and are simply priceless.
My last email ended with: “My image of family vacations has dramatically changed having been on this past trip. Painfully embarrassing as my family can be, our sense of humors and ridiculous attitudes definitely provided me with constant entertainment throughout the trip.”
Change happened. I can care about them and not constantly be annoyed by my Dad’s tendency to cut people in lines all the time (“It’s survival of the fittest, Mahum,” he says). Significant changes can take place once I cut myself off from the superficiality of day-to-day texting and small talk to take the time to understand the people I am bound to, the people who I will be forced to deal with my whole life, and the people whom I would never be able to replace.
