Tanner Easley: Outdoors brings Healing

After the loss of his dad to cancer at age 10, Tanner Easley faced depression, and mental health struggles. He was able to find healing and peace through God, skating, and two special needs kids from his neighborhood. Now, he’s able to give back to the world by serving students as a Special Education Functional Academic Teacher at Waco High School. He focuses on students’ abilities rather than their disabilities and gives them a safe space to feel loved, included, and valued. His students’ ability to be completely transparent, voice how they feel and encourage one another voluntarily is his daily inspiration. Read more about Tanner and his amazing story.

Tell us about your childhood and when you first became interested in skating:

Tanner: I lost my dad to stage 4 brain cancer at the age of 10, so my mom made a lot of sacrifices to take care of my sister, my brother and me. Watching my mom’s faith yield selflessness and strength through the various challenges we faced, influenced my perspective on life as a whole. For the first Christmas we had without my dad, my mom had a halfpipe built in the backyard to support my new interest in skating. This was the beginning of finding my outlet and therapy through years of mental health struggles tied to losing my dad.

 I grew up on eight acres of land in the woods and had a family lake house we would live in for the summers. While my peers were zoned in on playing video games, I was spending every minute of my days outside fixated on skating, hunting, fishing, and four wheeling (but mostly skating).

What influenced you to become a Functional Academic Teacher?

Tanner: The year after my dad passed away, a family moved into our neighborhood that had two kids with special needs. In a time of mourning, I felt disconnected from my peers and very misunderstood. Spending time with them and bringing them joy in the simplest of ways shifted the negative focus off of myself and became a part of my healing. This family then started a camp for kids with special needs where I served for summers. This camp focused on inclusivity and capitalized on the camper’s abilities rather than their disabilities through a plethora of summer activities. This environment of constantly shifting negativity into positivity turned into what I wanted to do day in and day out.

We describe our class as a team. My students constantly uphold this idea of unity and help each other whenever it’s needed. We also place positivity and kindness at the forefront of our actions and words. Over time, my students have become very forthcoming about their feelings and when they are not feeling like their best self. We all look out for each other.

I could go on and on as to why I love the students I work with, but in short, their ability to be completely transparent, voice how they feel and encourage one another voluntarily is a daily inspiration. Sometimes it feels like they teach me more than I could ever teach them.

Ways you center yourself to ensure you’re at your best at work?

Tanner: Balance. It’s not easy, but with time, I’ve been able to tell when I’m lacking social interaction with my friends/loved ones, when I’m not focusing on my spiritual life as much as I’d like to and when I need to get more physical activity. When I notice there is an imbalance, I hang out with friends, skate, listen to Christian podcasts and call loved ones that I haven’t talked to in a while. When it comes to stress at work though, skating ALWAYS relieves that stress and recharges my batteries.

Who’s your favorite skateboarder and why? This is a tough question, there’s quite a few lol I’ve recently become a pretty big fan of Zion Wright. I have followed him for several years, but met him here in Waco about two weeks ago. He was extremely humble and we talked about serving individuals with special needs. He used to volunteer for a program that served individuals with autism through surfing. He had some great stories and proceeded to sign the back of my school ID.

Has skateboarding changed your life if so how? For several reasons mentioned in the other questions. In this season of life, it’s what gives me a break from daily stress and has introduced me to all kinds of people in the community.

Where can people find you?

IG: @tannereasley