Junior Surashree Mistry leads a very busy life, filled with family, friends and choir. As a doubler (a girl who is in both Spotlight/Madrigals and Starlight), she has a very full schedule. Despite all of this, she still finds time to be with the people she cares about.
Helping other people is very important to Mistry. She loves to help other people and wants to go into the medical field one day to further achieve her passion. She stated she realized from a young age how fortunate she is, even though she believes most children should not have to realize such things, and she wants to use that fortune to help others.
“I’d like to give others a chance who aren’t as fortunate as I am,” Mistry mentioned. But in addition to her tendency to help people, she is also a very kind, determined and sarcastic, although she detailed how she seems stern at first glance. Her culture is also important to her. Mistry is very proud of her ancestry and upbringing and loves to have the chance to teach others about her culture, as well as encouraging others to do the same. Not only that, but she regularly goes to festivals related to her culture and religion and enjoys wearing garb so that if someone comments on it or asks about it, she can share her culture with more people.
“I think if anyone has the chance to embrace any culture, it’s a beautiful thing, and I think more people should do it often because you get to learn more about other people and why wouldn’t you want to do that in a world that we live in because if you learn more about other cultures, you inevitably know more about other people and meeting and knowing other people. It’s truly a beautiful thing,” Mistry stated.
When teaching others about her culture, Mistry does not fail to include how it has shaped her morals. Seeing as she is Bangladeshi but culturally Indian, her morals are often different than that of an American person. Respect is an example. While someone born and raised with American customs might not think too hard about repaying someone for a favor, Mistry feels she must repay them in some sort, no matter how small the favor might have been, because giving, even if you do not have much to give, is a big part of her culture. “It’s almost like a checkbox in my mind that I have to check it off or I feel wrong until I do it,” Mistry said.
At the top of her long list of priorities, however, is choir. Mistry is extremely dedicated to choir and spends most of her time outside of school doing various choir-related activities, such as rehearsals and concerts. One thing that is impressive about her choir journey is the fact that she is a doubler as a junior, even though most people, especially girls, do not make it into Spotlight until their senior year, if they get in at all. It is easier for boys to get in because there are not as many that audition, and boys can get in as early as sophomore year, while girls cannot get in until junior year. In the 2023-2024 school year, there have been only six doublers, with Mistry as one of the three juniors. One possible factor for her early admission could be the fact that she skipped the freshman girls’ choir, Choralaires, and was in the beginner-level girls’ show choir, Bella Voce, which was a big moment in Mistry’s life as only a few select freshman get chosen to be in that show choir. “A lot of the people that I met that year have become some of my closest friends throughout my high school career,” Mistry said.
