Manassas Park Senior Knows the Meaning of Hard Work

Editor's Note: This is part one in this week's five-part series on Manassas Park High School seniors who will graduate on June 11. On Tuesday, we will run a feature story on another senior.

Simardeep Nagyal may only be 18, but she knows the meaning of hard work and appreciating the things you have in life.

 Nagyal, a senior at Manassas Park High, will graduate in less than three weeks. She spent some time on Thursday reflecting on her life, her high school career and what lies beyond graduation.

 “Most people say it (senior year) is the easiest year out of the four, but I thought it was the hardest, because of college applications and trying to balance classes with extracurricular activities and leaving some time for myself, so I can have a cool head,” she said.

 Nagyal applied to seven schools and decided on Duke University in North Carolina where she will major in political science with a pre-medicine track.

She’s always had an interest in mathematics, but said her love of the sciences came more recently after she and her classmates dissected a pig in ninth grade.

 “I thought it was so cool; inside this simple creature there were so many things going on and at one time, it was a live organism,” she said.

 Her love for sciences and mathematics lead her to take classes like Advanced Placement Biology and Calculus part BC this year, to name a few.

  “What motivates me is just basically finding something I love to do. I see school as something you have to do to get through, to do the things you want to do in life,” she said. “The priority is getting the work done and then having time for myself.”

 Nagyal stays focused and takes her studies seriously because of what her parents have done for she and her younger brother and sister.

 “I think its because of my parents, they work so hard to give us the life that they didn’t have.  I feel like I need to take advantage of that and do what my parents want me to do to be successful,” she said.

 The teen has set lofty goals for herself.  Nagyal said she wants to practice internal medicine or be a cardiologist.

 She has packed a lot of experiences into her young life, beginning with a move from India when she was in the third grade.

 Nagyal said she remembers the challenges associated with the move.

 “ (It was) the language itself and the cultural part. The people over there are more conservative in some ways,” she said.

 She also missed the Indian cuisine, Nagyal said.

 "No matter how much they say you can cook all the Indian food you want here, it’s not going to taste the same as it does in India,” she said laughing. “But I probably wouldn't have ever had the chance to taste Chinese food.”

She appreciates the diversity of Virginia, Nagyal said.

“It really is a melting pot,” she said.

 Nagyal said she is looking forward to graduation on June 11. That day is symbolic of her being an adult who is independent of her parents.

 “I’m happy … 13 years of my life, finally over,” she said.