“Hard Working”
“Caring”
“Athletic”
“Funny”
“Amazing”
These five words would be used to describe senior Castiliya Asir, according to her best friend Avery Frick . Yet, what people don’t know is why Castiliya is who she is.
Castiliya was born into a high achieving family. Both parents, Komal Hatti and Theo Asir are immigrants from Bilaspur, India. They paved their way to be hardworking architects and her sister, Mehania Asir, is currently in med school. This made Castiliya strive to work hard not just in academics but in swimming.
Swimming has been in Castiliya’s life forever. In eighth grade, swimming took on a new role in her life though. She started becoming more competitive, learning new techniques, and increasing her speed. With this came a new routine in her daily life: school and swim, and hardly anything else.
Before Castiliya races she has a routine: first she swims a couple laps to warm up her body. She then wraps herself in a big parka to keep her muscles super warm while talking to her coaches before her meet. Third, Castiliya goes behind the blocks and tries to stay calm and to remember to trust her ability to swim. Then she gets herself up the blocks, with one foot forward and waits for the last whistle. When she hears the whistle she claps twice, leans over, grabs the block.
Placing her right foot on the back wedge first, left foot curled over the block, and as they say “Take your mark” Castiliya braces. When the “go” beep sounds, she lunges forward, arms in a streamline. As she races through the pool, she remembers what Dory says in Finding Nemo: “ Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.”
The real challenge isn’t the anticipation before the meet,or the anxiety when she hears the “go” beep. It isn’t the worry of not shaving off time during her swim or even the exhaustion of holding her breath and using all her strength to beat her competitors. For Castiliya it is after coming out of the pool, when she realizes that even with the excitement of winning her heat it doesn’t masks the feeling of not belonging that comes with being the only person of color on her team.
Castiliya has always felt this sense of being out of place and not belonging because of her skin color. This hurts her swimming ability more than the physical capabilities and challenges like speed and technique.
“It’s hard to keep pushing at something when you don’t feel like you fit in,” Castiliya said
These hardships and the idea that she wasn’t enough, Castiliya didn’t think she’d swim competitively in college. She decided not to go to school to swim until she had the idea that she could get recruited. With her times she could be good enough to get into lower D1 schools but with her being academically focused she instead looked at ranked NCAA D3 swim schools and realized she could be a good fit.
During the recruitment process Castiliya was considering the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT because it fit that description for her. She always reminded herself to not expect anything, though Castiliya didn’t have a dream school and only really felt like she wanted to go to MIT a little less than a year ago. She saw her sister get rejected from MIT, and wanted to protect herself from feeling disappointed.
In December 2025, Castiliya verbally committed to MIT for her swim and academic career. She was in her kitchen with her mom when she got the email. When she saw it she felt relief. She views MIT as a stepping stone and hopes it will open doors for her, but she doesn’t like talking about her future plans because it makes them feel concrete.
She did have doubts about committing to MIT with the workload but she hopes that since she was always working, even in high school, that she will have a balance between school and swim. Castiliya also chose MIT out of all her schools including Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, and Columbia, because of their STEM options. She knows there will be wiggle room if she wanted to go to a different major and it would still be a good program.
Even with all the good, Castiliya was still left with some regrets.
“I regret pushing myself so hard. Obviously I ended up in a great position but it was mentally taxing. A lot of times I feel like we won’t talk about that a lot, so remember to be kind to yourself when applying to colleges and take everything with a grain of salt,” Castiliya said.
To those who ask her how she got into MIT, instead ask if she thinks it’s meant for everyone.
This identification of figuring out what is best for Castiliya was easier with people who care about her in her corner. Castiliya grew up surrounded by discipline and this idea that life will always be hard, but you just have to have people around you who care for you. In this case Castiliya’s best friend Avery Frick was her person. She taught her how to live outside of just school and swim.
Castiliya met Avery around three years ago when she was a sophomore and Avery was a freshman. They met in their club swim team when Avery joined the senior group, and Castiliya was one of the first people who went up to her and welcomed Avery into the team. Their friendship started with talking at practice and planning hang outs with the group swim team.
This led to becoming best friends, helped Castiliya learn to keep a balance of her school, home, and academic responsibilities.
Castiliyas social life was affected with her inability to not have a life outside of school and swim in her early high school career. But Castiliya evolved during her junior and now senior year with the help of good friends including Avery. She shifted her focus from just academics and swimming to being an active high schooler. This had an impact on Castiliya livelihood and made her become more happy and content with her life.
Castiliya has also taught Avery how to live outside of school and swim by teaching her how to love somebody. Avery has had multiple friendships, but before Castiliya she didn’t have someone who she could truly unconditionally love. Castiliya taught Avery how to live a life full of genuine care and love for people in her life, which led to Avery’s growth in other friendships and relationships because of how Castiliya loved Avery and how Avery loved Castiliya.
“I hope she never forgets just how much people truly care about her because she’s moving so far away…. And I hope she takes what me and her have gone through and learned together, and takes this into her other future, friendships, relationships, and everything,” Frick said.