Whether or not someone is a horrible vocalist who only lets loose in the privacy of their own shower or even the next Beyoncé, singing is something everyone has done at one point or another. But while looking into SHS senior Brady Schuster’s eyes, anyone can see that singing is so much more than a common hobby to him; it’s a passion. He will be sharing his passion with us Sept. 3 at Coffee House.

Schuster, whose mother claims has been singing since the age of 2, began to consciously fall in love with singing at the age of 8. Throughout his high school career, Schuster has been a part of show choir and joined the travel choir team this year at SHS. Although Schuster has now made it far with his musical talent, it wasn’t always so easy for him, especially in the beginning.

“I want to be able to die doing what I like to do, which is singing,” Schuster said, with teary eyes, as he began to talk about a more sensitive take on his singing experiences.  

Schuster says his hero is his father, who also did choir when he was younger. Along with his father, Schuster dedicates a lot of his success to the helping hand of SHS teacher Tim Jamriska.

In middle school, Jamriska was Schuster’s english teacher. He sat in the back and was overall pretty shy and insecure. Jamriska, not knowing how much it would affect Schuster’s future decisions, showed his class the song “100 years” by Five for Fighting. The song talks about how quickly life will pass you by. Hitting Schuster hard, he realized he couldn’t waste his time forever being quiet and hesitant. He soon started to feel more confident in his talent and love for singing, and wanted to finally start sharing it with the world.

“I had no clue it (the song) was going to have such a huge impact on some kids, like it did with Brady,” Jamriska said.

Four years later, Schuster still holds this song close to his heart when needing some motivation, especially when it comes to thinking about what he wants to do once he’s out of school.

No matter what happens, Schuster knows he wants to continue singing. He plans on going to Ivy Tech and hopefully joining the choir team there. After college, he wants to continue forth with his love for singing. He says working for Disney and doing voice acting would be more than a dream come true, but Hollywood was never something that interested him much. Singing has always been about making himself and others happy, and will never be solely about making money; so singing locally would make him perfectly content with his life.  

Having had the advice of Jamriska affect his life so deeply, he hopes to somehow do the same for others in the future. He encourages everyone to go forth with their dreams and get out of their box of comfortability. He couldn’t emphasize enough how much he supports everyone who is or wants to freely express themselves but feels constrained from doing so.

“Be you. You’re born with this gift and everything, use it. It’s a shame to have something so beautiful like yourself, that is so talented, and then let it go to waste,” Schuster said.

Schuster is excited to share his talent with everyone at  SHS during Coffee House on September 3 for one of the last times during his high school career.