A Childhood

Kali Stark, still in the single digits, sat at her table sipping tea with her imaginary friend, Molly. “I remember since I never had siblings, I would have imaginary friends,” Stark said. “I would pretend they were my siblings who would come over and have tea parties with me.” According to Stark, Molly was not anything fantastical. She was a regular girl, Stark’s imaginary sister.

For as long as Stark can remember, it has just been her and her mom. She doesn't have any siblings, so she did a lot of things on her own. But being an only child has brought her and her mother closer together. Stark describes her childhood as a quiet and happy one.

Her mother’s cooking is a major a staple of Stark’s family. Stark doesn’t like to eat alone: her mother enforces that food is a social thing, and makes sure that dinner is eaten as a family. “I think my mom has definitely ruined a lot of food for me,” Stark said. “I’ll eat something at someone else’s house, or at a restaurant, and [think] my mom could make this better.”

The Flu

Every year, Stark’s mother makes sure they get the flu shot. They never miss a year, not since 2003 when Stark was two years old. That was the year her father forgot to get the shot. Stark’s mother believes that if he had, he would still be around today.

Stark doesn’t have any memories of her father. When he got the flu in 2003, it triggered an autoimmune response which caused his body to start attacking itself. This led to blood clots in his brain. “It got to the situation where it was a damned if you do, damned if you don't,” Stark said. “They could remove the blood clot and he would die of too much bleeding, or they could keep it there, and he would die of lack of blood flow to his brain.”

Two-year old Kali had just lost her father, and her mother had lost her husband. “My mom is not the type of person to be consumed by grief,” Stark said. She describes her mom not letting herself wallow in her sadness, focusing on raising her child. With pride, Stark describes her mother as a person with never-ending perseverance. “She’s a tough cookie,” Stark said. “There’s not a lot that can break her.”

Although Stark doesn’t remember her father, she has been able to find ways to connect with him. “My dad used to play guitar a lot, and so I’ve recently graduated to using his guitar instead of my daisy duke pink guitar,” Stark said. “I’ve looked through his guitar case and I found some hand-written music, which is really cool, it feels like I’m piecing together part of the mystery.”

Stark has also taken up swimming after quitting gymnastics recently. Gymnastics had been her sport since kindergarten, but Stark described it as a frustrating and painful activity. Swimming is a feel-good sport for her. “My dad was a swimmer, so there’s a connection there, and I feel like I have more purpose behind it,” Stark said.

Heritage

Stark never really had to think much about her relationship with her heritage until her freshman year of high school. “I grew up not around a lot of Indian people, so no one ever questioned how Indian I was,” Stark said.

Stark’s mother came to the U.S. from India when she was nine, and Kali was born in Ann Arbor.

Once Stark started going to WIHI, an IB school in Ypsilanti, she was surrounded by kids whose parents had immigrated from Pakistan and India later in life, or were born there themselves.

‘I’ve been told so many times in my school now that I’m really white, or not Indian,” Stark said. “It does make me mad, because I want to feel like I have some connection to where my family is from, even if you could argue [that my family] is really from Southern California. And I want to keep that culture with me, but sometimes I feel like it’s not mine to want to be a part of.”

In 2015, Stark travelled to India to visit her family that still lives there. “It’s really easy to feel detached from [my heritage],” Stark said. “It made me feel more connected to that side of me.”

Living in Ann Arbor, Stark had a very limited view of the world. She had never been out of the country until then. “We definitely live in a bubble [in Ann Arbor,]” Stark said. “Being on the other side of the world really helps to burst that.”

Stark for Office

Stark credits the 2016 presidential election as a catalyst that got her into politics. Really into politics. “I think I follow the Russian investigation a little too closely than is healthy,” Stark said.

Looking forward, Stark wants to pursue politics. But whether she will be a politician or a behind the scenes type person is up to her. Although Stark is extremely bright and talented, she still doubts herself. “I think part of me thinks I lack the charisma to be a frontline politician,” Stark says. “I doubt the amount of grit that I have to actually go through with that.”