At 3 months old, doctors removed a tumor from her retinas, permanently scaring and damaging her vision. Everyday is a struggle, but she has adapted and now shares her love of music with elementary school students.
Growing up in Whitefish Bay, she grew fond of music and performing and refined her craft playing with youth symphonies and bands. Now, she tries to pass that love on to her fifth- through eighth-grade students at St. Robert School, where she has been a band teacher for the past six years.
“I’ve always known I’ve wanted to do music,” she said. “I’ve always been a band geek.”
But every day brings a new challenge.
At just 3 months old, doctors discovered a cancerous tumor attached to the retina on her right eye, which later spread to her left eye. Tryba was forced to go under the surgical knife to have it removed. “I’m very lucky they caught it in time,” she said. “It could have been much worst.”
However, the surgery left Tryba with severe vision loss, which isn’t correctable, she explained. She has virtually no use of one of her eyes.
“I’ve dealt with this my entire life, so I haven’t known it any different,” she said. “You adapt, and you just learn to make it work for you".
Today, getting students as excited about music as she was as a child means Tryba must adapt much of her teaching material, enlarging print and music and memorizing some of the substance.
“Through many instructors, I have come up with a system of markings and different colors,” said Tryba, who attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to obtain her teaching license. "There are a lot of high highs and a lot of low lows, but I love when you get to the concert, and you see all that hard work, blood, sweat and tears pay off."
READ MORE: http://shorewood.patch.com/articles/st-robert-teacher-overcomes-disability-to-share-passion-for-music
SOURCE: http://shorewood.patch.com/
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