The life of Thyra Sandstrom was defined by many social, physical, academic, and artistic elements. She was raised by two musicians, so the arts were inevitably a huge part of her life. Ever since she was a young child, she attended every concert she possibly could. Her father took her to museums up until the day she passed, and she loved every minute of it. When Thyra was in fifth grade, she was admitted into the Chicago Symphony Youth Percussion Program. In this Program, she was expected to practice at least two hours a day. Two years into the program, the group asked her to choose between playing music or playing sports. Thyra, being the athlete that she was, chose to continue with basketball, track, football and soccer and took a break from playing music. That was until she played the electric bass for the school plays of 2007, and 2009.
Years went by, but Thyra continued playing soccer and basketball, and playing the bass. In the spring of 2012, Thyra was asked to fill in for the bassist of the Harrison Ivaz Band for one of the greatest music festivals ever: Lollapolooza. As she described it, performing at Lollapolooza on both Friday and Saturday was one of the greatest things to ever happen to her. Although she has never lived a fruitful financial life, the arts sure made up for it.
Socially, Thyra had always had lots of friends. She loved riding her bike everywhere she could just to be with them. Many friends were made at her schools that she had attended. These included Wonder Montessori Pre-School, Stone Elementary for kindergarten, Alexander G. Bell Elementary for 1-8 grade and Whitney M. Young Magnet High School. She had always been in an accelerated academic program, and her dream was to continue her studies at the University of Pennsylvania or the University of Michigan- Ann Arbor to eventually become a pediatrician.
Another contributor to how Thyra lived her everyday life was her spirituality and youth retreats she attended. These retreats enlightened her to meditation and prayer and changed the way she looked at the universe as a whole. She was never the most religious person, but spirituality played a huge role in her life. She believed that emitting positive energy into the universe would ultimately bring positive outside elements to her. Through this belief and many other experiences, Thyra also came to believe that everything happens for a reason. This mindset had helped her deal with all things that went awry in her life, and had made her a strong person.
Thyra led a successful life full of open-mindedness and an urge to learn. It's a shame to see her go. :(
I'd like to remark on the final statements you made starting with "...how Thyra lived her everyday life was her spirituality and youth retreats..." as a whole. I feel like the practice of spirituality and being one with the universe, per se, which you touched on a bit isn't really enforced or taken on as a tradition by many nowadays. This is unfortunate because all philosophy/debate aside, it has been scientifically proven that forms of this practice can actually keep a person healthy and positive. I learned this from a philosophy book I read over the summer along with many other ways to be "one with the universe" that people have practiced. That book was quite intriguing and it made me want to start making such practices a part of my lifestyle, so I'm glad to hear that spirituality plays an important part in your life.
ReplyDeleteThat is amazing that you were asked t fill in at Lollapalooza! You are clearly very talented. On top of doing sports too I can't imagine you have much free time. Are you planning on continuing music and sports through college even though you are going to be pre-med?
ReplyDeleteI plan to continue both recreationally, but I do not wish to pursue either professionally. Pre-med will be enough of a workload on it's own.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like she had an amazing passion for music and succeeded in it in many ways such as performing at Lollapalooza. She was a very well-rounded person in the fact that she played sports as well. It's just a shame that she couldn't have attended a better grammar school.
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