“There will be times when you think about giving up, thinking the weight is too much to lift, but it’s the burdens that make us strong enough to turn a curse into a gift.” -Tyler Millard, Alive
For many of us our senses are something we take for granted. We don’t realize how important these senses are until we lose our sight, hearing, or smell and are forced to find a way to cope with the sudden change. UNCW alumnus, Tyler Millard, knows first hand that a positive outlet is necessary when overcoming a major challenge. After being diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, which caused him to slowly loose his vision, Tyler needed to rediscover his purpose in life so he learned how to play the guitar. “As soon as I was confronted with the thought that I wasn’t going to be able to do other things, I was forced to try something new and I was lucky enough to discover something that I am passionate about,” Tyler recalled. Learning how to play the guitar while being diagnosed changed these negative feelings into what is now, Tyler’s beautiful and inspirational sound.
Along with the normal obstacles of college, Tyler was also learning how to cope with his vision loss while obtaining his degree. After graduating with a degree in math and a teaching licensure, Tyler taught in the school system for a while. He then returned to Wilmington for his graduate degree in math so he could teach at a college level. Although Tyler had opportunities to teach in a college classroom after graduate school, he instead decided to turn again to music. Tyler enjoyed teaching, but he felt that music was an outlet he could succeed at independently. “What I started to realize was that if I was going to teach, I would need a teaching assistant, and I felt like, why wouldn’t that person just teach the class instead,” Tyler pointed out. Tyler then took the risk and turned all of his attention to writing and making music.
Tyler dedicated the next few years to improving what he had always loved—music. Tyler took voice lessons, wrote a lot of lyrics, formed his band, and began working with a family friend, Todd Morris, to publicize his name. As Tyler began to find his sound, he crossed paths with the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB). The mission of FFB is to promote research that will help find cures, treatments, and preventions for any and all of the retinal degenerative diseases. Tyler said, “If there’s a cure in my lifetime, that would be amazing. We’d be so lucky to have it happen while we’re here on earth. It just seems like the time is now.” After learning about all of the amazing research made possible by FFB, Tyler was drawn to their cause and wanted to be a part of the solution to the fight that he and millions of others were fighting.
Tyler knew he wanted to take action, so he decided to record his song, “Alive”, which now serves as the anthem for FFB. This song was written at a time when Tyler needed strength, and he believes that the song has the potential to help others cope as well. “The message of the song is a message of hope, and we wanted the lyrics to really speak to people that didn’t just have my situation,” Tyler explained. So with the help of Harry Smith at Blackbird Studios in Nashville, Tyler reworked the song and made it into the inspirational anthem of FFB. To support the cause, Tyler has decided to donate 25 cents of every iTunes download of “Alive” to FFB.
Originally, Tyler wrote “Alive” as an outlet to cope with his personal adversity, but he hopes that it can touch the lives of anyone facing a challenge. “‘Alive’ is, at its core, a very personal song, but I hope it can mean to others what it has meant to me. It would be a great honor to know that I have given someone the gift of hope,” Tyler expressed. This song is an encouragement to anyone that is trying to overcome adversity, and it can serve as an inspiration for everyone. Tyler found a way to overcome the greatest challenge of his life and that, in itself, should be an inspiration to us all.
Photos courtesy of Todd Morris.