Healing harmony: Teenage cancer survivor credits music for helping him recover
TAMPA, Fla. - For Sean Barnette,17, music is a part of who he is.
"I love music," he said. "Music is my passion."
He's been singing and playing musical instruments since he was eight.
"I'm crazy knowledgeable about music and playing instruments. I would like to teach others to give back," he explained.
Barnette plays keyboards and guitars and can’t really pick a favorite.
"That's like picking your favorite child," he said. "You can’t really do that."
Barnette’s musical plans came to a halt when he was diagnosed with bone cancer last year.
"All these thoughts. All these questions. I didn't know what was going to happen, especially that first night," he shared.
Barnette had in-patient chemotherapy at Tampa General Hospital for nine months.
"What a crazy experience," Barnette reflected. "But you definitely go in one way and come out another."
Barnette has a different outlook on life now.
"Some of the small issues that seem so big before all of this I'm able to make everything better. I mean I would just say, ‘Hey, that's not the worst thing that would happen,’" he said.
Barnette says his love of music helped him heal.
"All the different things that you can do with music. It affects people in so many different ways," Barnette explained. "It can make them happy. It can make them emotional but at the end of the day. I think it always has a positive outcome."
An outcome that has had a positive effect on his life. Barnette hopes to one day become a music professor.
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