For any student high school can be a challenge, but for Lydia Shin ‘23 it is the biggest hardship she has faced. Shin is like any other student; she focuses on her grades and gets all of her work done on time, but also has to practice tennis four times a week and two instruments every day. 

Shin has many talents, one of them being tennis. Lydia plans to join the varsity team this year as a freshman, which is very uncommon for her age group. When asked, Shin admitted she was a little timid about playing with the upperclassmen, but she is confident she can hold her own.  A future teammate of Shin’s, Caroline Mascardo ‘22, talks about how Lydia is the ideal teammate.

“Lydia is a very kind and supportive teammate. I’ve known her for several years, and she is one to always be there for you if you’re ever down. I can’t wait to have her on the varsity team this spring because not only is she a skilled player, but a very sweet and funny person, too,” said Mascardo.

Even though Shin has had great success in tennis, she didn’t always love the sport. Her brother played tennis a few years back, so she was put into the sport by her parents. When Lydia was first enrolled in tennis classes, she absolutely despised it. She disliked the social aspects of tennis because as a young girl she was very shy and rarely interacted with other people unless forced.  

“My dad made me play tennis, I hated tennis, because to play you had to go meet other people and go to the actual tennis class. I was super shy, it made me really nervous to play around other people. I always screwed up a lot, because I was scared that other people were watching. So I didn’t like it at first. But now, I’m older, and I’m not one of the younger ones in tennis. So I have more confidence now. So I like it more now that I am older,” Shin said.

Lydia hasn’t always been as dedicated to tennis as she is now, as previously stated Lydia did not find tennis intriguing and fun to start out with. She often would goof off and give minimum effort, but then something clicked and she began to put more effort and take tennis seriously. She formerly danced competitively until about a year ago when she started to become more dedicated to tennis. 

“I’m trying to work even harder this year. Because before I kind of didn’t really care, because I was really shy. So I didn’t want to try at my tennis practices. But this year, I’m trying to put in more work.  I play, like, four days a week now, before I played like two days a week, because I also did dance, and that took up so much time. I quit that last year, So now I have a lot more time to practice,” Shin said.

On top of practicing tennis four times a week, she also plays both the violin and trombone and Lydia also has schoolwork every night. With her jammed packed schedule it’s a wonder how she stays so level headed and calm. When asked, Shin gave a description on how she manages her time. 

“I did starting start getting stressed about it. Because my parents were like, Oh, this year, you’re playing four times a week. And I was like, Well, how am I going to do homework?  I play violin and trombone. And it wasn’t really that bad. Because I also had to choose between violin and trombone. Because I couldn’t do both. Well, I could this trimester. But after this, I had to choose one. So I chose trombone. So I didn’t have to practice violin anymore. So that freed up, like an hour of time every day. And so like, and I don’t have that much homework right now. It’s the beginning of the year, we’re not studying any big projects. So like, at the end of the day, I only have like 30 to 45 minutes. It’s not bad.” 

Shin also manages a social life in addition to everything else going on in her life. Since she does not have much free time during the week due to tennis and homework, she loves to hang out with her friends on the weekends. One of Shin’s close friends that she has known for around a decade, Xiaoyi Zhu ‘22, said how Shin is a good friend with an amazing personality. 

“I admire Lydia’s personality. She is funny and thoughtful. You can never be upset with her,” said Zhu ‘22.