By Malaya Madison
Although seniors Kai Labarrie and Arvin Khodkar are counting down the days until senior year is over, their siblings Diarra Labarrie and Darian Khodkar are just getting started. This is likely the last time they will be in the same school together, and they are extremely grateful for this overlap.
Arvin and Kai started 9th grade as new Lovett students, forcing them to find new friends. “I’ve grown more extroverted because of the different environment,” Arvin said.
Since Diarra and Darian have both been at Lovett since 6th grade, they experienced the shift of schools much earlier on without having the added balance of high school stress.
At school, it feels as though they are in two different worlds, but at home, their arguments have less to do with an age gap and more to do with arguing over music being too loud and having different opinions, as well as bonding over their shared frustrations about parental rules.
For Kai and Diarra, the parenting styles they experience are very different, mostly because of Lovett. Kai feels that Diarra received the privilege to hang out younger because socializing is a big part of Lovett.
“I think growing up in middle school here, there is more of a social life because you guys did so much stuff,” Arvin said. However, Kai was not as socially active in middle school; therefore, she experienced those privileges later.
Diarra disagrees with her sister, feeling as though since Kai is older, “she obviously gets more freedom.”
This perfectly captures where they are in their high school journeys. Freshies Diarra and Darian are still learning the ropes, and Kai and Arvin are loving the senior privileges they are granted.
Some of these privileges include leaving early for free periods, sleeping in later, participating in senior assassins, and overall soaking up senior year.
Kai and Arvin already have an idea of what they want to do after senior year. Kai plans on going out of state for school. “I want to play soccer in college,” she said. “Actually, I will play soccer in college.”
While Arvin wants to stay in Georgia, he would not mind heading out of state for college, as long as it isn’t far. He would like to study biology and genetics, so he has a path for pre-med.
Their emotions about leaving for college align closely with those of their siblings. Every time the Labarrie sisters were asked how they were feeling, I received reactions like, “Oh my gosh, why would you say that?” and “ No, I’m about to cry”.
With the Khodkar Brothers, their answers were more reserved, but ultimately the same.
“I mean it’ll probably be different,” Arvin shared, “I’ll see him a lot less obviously, but what that brings would be better connections and more eagerness to spend time with him.”
One of the ways that these siblings spend undivided time is when they are driving to school.
When asked if he’s going to miss spending that quality time together in the morning car rides, in the future, Darian shared, “No, his music taste is trash.”
Diarra and Kai shared the same expression, saying that since they are both not morning people, “they do not mix well ” in those 8 A.M car rides.
Through their shared experiences and personalities, these siblings have learned many valuable lessons from one another.
Arvin shared that Darian teaches him to have a more positive outlook on things and look ahead to the future. “He doesn’t realize that he does it, but he’s always looking positively at things, and he lives in the present,” Arvin said
Kai shared that Diarra has taught her not to care what anyone thinks about you and to embrace confidence. Diarra’s biggest admiration from Kai is her incredible work ethic for everything.
Even though it is hard to admit, the siblings recalled what each of them felt the other was better at.
Arvin shared that Darian is better than him at math, and he is stronger in history and English. He also shared that “Darian is going to destroy me at baseball every single time.”
Beyond the friendly competitions, seniors Kai and Arvin know everything about the game, and they are ready to pass it down to their siblings. “I would say the biggest thing would be that it all honestly doesn’t even matter that much,” Arvin shared. “At the end of the day, I feel like time flies by really, really quickly. I would just say focus on your grades and try to do the best you can in sports.”
Kai stated something similar. “Stay on top of your work, but still enjoy the outside activities,” she said. “Don’t be too attached to your friend groups and the friends you have now, because those will likely change, but it’s all a part of your journey, and it’ll be okay.”
While things will be quite different next year, their strong sibling bond seems like it won’t change. And who knows, maybe it will even improve when they aren’t able to annoy each other driving together to school.
