A piano fills the room with swelling crescendos. Notes cascade one after another in perfect harmony. But these delicate keys are touched not by one pair of hands, but rather two. This is the intricate dance of piano duets, which senior Hima Thota has spent hours mastering.

Hima first began playing piano in kindergarten. Eventually, as she and her sister progressed, they learned to play duets together with the guidance of their teacher. While the process of learning to play in unison took time and patience, Hima and her sister Hita (’23) slowly adapted to each other’s styles to develop the perfect balance between their notes.

“Part of the learning curve of playing a duet is that you’re not listening to your part, you’re listening to the other part, especially if you’re a secondhand versus a firsthand,” Hima said. “When we go to play, it’s not about getting the notes right, it’s more whether you are one with your partner because when you hear it, it should sound like one piano, all four hands playing.”

Hima’s journey with playing piano, especially the newer concept of duets, was not always straightforward. At times, she considered quitting, whether from stage fright or the pressure of balancing piano with schoolwork. When she faced doubt, Hima turned to her mentors, accepting their guidance and opening her own perspective.

“You have to be receptive to the people that are coaching you if you want to improve,” Hima said. “For the most part, I really do try to approach things with the mindset of ‘Let me separate my personal feelings and emotions from what others are telling me’ because there’s always some valid point on the other side. I don’t care about things in a way that I’ll let it ruin my week or my whole life. I move on easily, which made me be so receptive to feedback because I wasn’t so mentally blocked, thinking I can’t do this.”

That perspective allows Hima to approach her experiences with a reflective and open lens on life, which she shares with those around her. Close friend Gia Emelie (’25) became friends with Hima at the start of high school when they shared physics class. Now, as seniors, Gia relies on Hima’s support and looks to her for guidance during difficult moments.

“She’s the first person I go to for anything,” Gia said. “She’s really good at listening, and she has such good advice. She’s definitely helped with things, and she’s the one I’m most comfortable talking to because I know I can tell her anything and it will be fine.”

Hima’s peers and teachers noticed similar growth in her mindset and her sociability in class. English teacher Pauline Paskali, who first taught Hima in her frosh year, remembers her profound observations about literature, which she would often keep to herself or only express in her writing. When Dr. Paskali taught her again in junior year, she noticed a new willingness in Hima to speak up and contribute more vocally to class discussions.

“She would often ask questions and get others who might not have wanted to probe deeply into the text to do so,” Dr. Paskali said. “She had these interesting insights to say and kind of inspired others to look along. She started to value her knowledge and understand that what she had to offer could benefit the rest of the room to the extent that she would create a pause and offer her insight.”

Close friend Bhavya Srinivasan (’25) first met Hima in elementary school and has grown alongside her since. While both were quiet when they first met, Bhavya credits their friendship for helping her become more confident, a transformation she sees in Hima as well.

“She’s definitely become a lot more talkative,” Bhavya said. “Before, she was a lot quieter, but she talks to so many more people now. I also used to be really shy in lower school, but both of us grew together. We’ve experienced a lot of change together, but I know I always have a connection with her.”

Hima also shares her opinions and perspectives through articles she writes as part of Harker Journalism, where her roles as features editor and Aquila managing editor allowed her to write long-form articles that delve deep into topics unfamiliar to her before. In her junior year, Hima decided to write a piece on the one-year death anniversary of Mahsa Amini, reflecting on the importance of the movement and its impact. Through collecting personal anecdotes from members of the Harker community, Hima centered her writing on the continuing relevance of the story and hoped to push others to remember why it struck them in the past.

“That’s where I saw the challenge of long-form writing: how do you combine really personal experiences and those really moving stories with the broader message that anybody can relate to?” Hima said. “Especially when these stories and perspectives are within your community, how do you combine that with the hard facts, but also the broader impact of that event? How do you combine the two to make it into something that anybody can read and empathize with and maybe understand more about the issue?”

Through each piano piece, article and encounter, Hima listens openly, accounting for all the voices around her. While she may have hidden certain parts of herself in the past, Hima feels ready to continue learning new perspectives while also sharing her own, always pushing into difficult, unknown parts of life.

“I try to be an aware and conscious person when it comes to the people around me, but also the issues and the things I learn about,” Hima said. “That doesn’t mean I don’t have strong opinions. I do have strong opinions, but I’m constantly reminding myself I cannot be so stubborn. I need to be open to change, but that doesn’t mean I have to change my opinion with every person I come across. I try to remind myself not to get stuck in one mindset or one thought.”