Styx McMillan

He/him - Birmingham, AL ⇄ Nashville, TN

LYB Retreat Ambassador

About me: I'm Styx, a percussionist, live-audio creative, and TBI survivor on a healing journey that is deeply connected to music, mindfulness, and community. After a traumatic brain injury in 2021 interrupted my college experience, LYB helped me find a community where I didn't have to explain the invisible parts of recovery. Now, a Commercial Music graduate and soon to be film student, I want to connect with young survivors who feel like their brain injury has separated them from their friends, family, goals, purpose, or themselves.

Why LYB: LYB gave me and my mom a community when we felt isolated, confused, and unsure of what our new life looked like. After a LYB Retreat in Maine, I realized LYB was a place of connection, mindfulness, peace, and belonging. I’m inspired to be an ambassador; I want survivors to feel seen, supported, and reminded that healing does not mean giving up on their dreams. I want survivors to know they are not alone, and their song is not over. Life after a TBI can still hold music, movement, travel, creativity, purpose, friendship, and joy. LYB gave gave me a chorus of people who understood the song and now I want to help someone else hear harmony again.

Superhero: My superhero is a combination of two things I've never been without: my drumsticks and my mom. After my TBI, music became the language that helped me keep moving, and my mom was the steady beat reminding me not to give up when I couldn't hear the rhythm for myself.