A Photo Essay

Since I already wrote an acknowledgement for the "This I Learned" assignment (awkward!), I'll write a "This I Learned" blogpost for this assignment. We're nothing if not consistent. 

So...what have I learned? Uhhhhh *checks notes* the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell and every "C" in Pacific Ocean is pronounced differently. An efficient economy is when supply equals demand, and we're in a bear market! If you laugh at everything, you don't actually have to be funny. 

In some ways, high school feels like my entire life and no time at all -- I've been here for seven-thousand, six-hundred and fifty seven years, dragging my lifeless body through these halls when I'm sleep-deprived, anxious, sad, all three at once. I can't envision my life before freshman year, even though I logically know it existed. I also can't believe it's over so soon. 

Let's start at the beginning. 

Freshman Year

14 can be characterized by going out of my way to prevent my father from getting a good picture of me and my sister, something I regret a little more now that I'm old and emotional, too. I played Atticus when we acted out the court scene in To Kill A Mockingbird, but since my best friend (hi Riya) was the judge, the opposition declared the entire event a mistrial. I was the "favorite freshman" of two upperclassmen in my math class, and twenty minutes before our virtual AP exam began, we were on FaceTime analyzing whether Josie's orange hair was salvageable. I learned how to solve a Rubik's Cube during the Sourdough Phase of the pandemic, and thought about the future too much and so dramatically little all at once. 

Sophomore Year

Error: No Pictures Found.

I'm pretty sure the only proof I really existed during the Pandemic Year was the forehead shots all my classmates and teachers got of me through Zoom. That, and my magnum opus: my completed set of APUSH notes. Sometimes I forget that we really lost an entire year of making s'mores in chemistry after the AP exam, reading Julius Caesar out loud in class, and everything in between. But, as five years of Spanish has taught me: asi es la vida. Such is life, so use it as a lesson to take more pictures.

Junior Year

I think we can universally agree that the best way to begin junior year is to ride the merry-go-round with toddlers and their overly concerned parents.

Why do I have an off-kilter, barely in focus, picture of two rows of desks in my Econ class? Consider it a testament to how much I missed in person class.

It might look like Parnika is eating a flower. She isn't. This is just atrociously bad timing. I wish the same could be said for why my face looks like...that, but unfortunately, as you will soon find out, this is my go-to picture pose.

PowerPoint Night 2022, which was really just my excuse to give a 45-minute long prepared lecture about the Dianna Argon and Taylor Swift conspiracy with a plate of mango juice and pound cake at my feet.

Ms. Brewer will always be my favorite for proudly displaying our whiteboard doodles of Stitch and Winnie the Pooh at the front of her classroom, encouraging her other hours to vote on the best part of our masterpiece. I hope someone will always believe in my ability to do things I objectively can't do the way she does.

We learned how to play poker on the floor of Valentino's room while the substitute teacher yelled at us for sitting on aforementioned floor. Shout-out to Catie in the back for just generally being an icon. 

Senior Year

Now that I'm officially a senior, I can begin offering unsolicited advice to those younger than me as though I know anything about life that they don't. One must really pass their sage wisdom and insights on to the next generation, mustn't they?

The amount of times I've visited and toured Target like it was the Sistene Chapel really ought to be studied. I'm hopeful that one of these days the staff will begin to recognize me, and I'll be able to boldly walk up to the cashier and say "the usual, Sarah," and be immediately handed an oat milk latte and almond croissant. Is it possible to open a tab at Target? Someone let me know ASAP.  

I include this because I think this is hilarious and 100% the best thing on Quora, but also because the past nine months of my life have been consumed by college research, and by college research, I mean oddly specific Google searches that lead to oddly specific forums with oddly specific answers. Why is Nick from Seattle able to predict my chances of getting into Princeton better than my own mother? Good question.

Spring break, also known as the only proof I need that I can't survive without my father's oatmeal and my mother's paneer. 

Please compare to previous car picture. No flower in Parnika's mouth, no blurry peace sign (from me). Just pure relief to be done with the AP Spanish exam, and Titi Me Pregunto blasting from the speakers using Vidhi's fancy schmancy Spotify premium. Consider this character growth.

And Beyond

I watched this video where Kendall Jenner talked about taping a baby picture to her bathroom mirror so that every time she was self-deprecating, she was reminded that the person she was insulting was that little girl. My sister (who's in India right now) has been sending me pictures from my grandparents' scrapbooks this past week, and you know what? Yes, high school Deepti has been confused and wild and the most embarrassing person alive, but she's also kinda cool. And I'm proud I know her.

So if nothing else, I learned that in high school.