Glacier High School grad finds the sweetness in life despite chronic illness

Glacier High School’s Andrea Chandler lives each day embracing what energy and mobility her body provides to move toward achieving her aspirations and ambitions while living with chronic illness.

Throughout high school, the soon-to-be graduate has found the spice of life in the theater, culinary arts and French horn.

In theater, Chandler recalled landing her first lead role as Madeline in “Madeline’s Christmas” at 8 years old. 

“I fell in love with it ever since. Then, I was just doing community shows and my plan was to make theater my life in high school,”she said.

Although she was ready to dive in freshman year, she realized it required patience and theater classes to make an all-school production. By sophomore year, she was acting and junior year “I did every show.” 

She’s happy to be on stage, even for small parts, throwing her energy into each character down to the details of the costumes.

“I think my first character only had four lines. I was still fully enveloped with the process and they really made me feel like I was a part of the process and not just a small part,” Chandler said about her classmates and teachers.

For one play, a comic retelling of mythology titled “The Greek Mythology Olympiaganza,” she juggled multiple roles and designed her costumes including a tearaway toga for a speedy costume change into war gear for a Trojan War scene.

“It's not a necessity —” she said about making the costumes, “— but I love just going so in-depth with whatever character that I have, big or small.”

Her penchant for costume design led her to serve as costume director for a Wolfpack Theatre production of “Death of a Salesman.” From the tailoring to hairstyles, Chandler sets the bar high in trying to achieve looks that are accurate to the time period or setting of a play.

“I love doing research,” Chandler said.

“My mom actually came in and helped a lot of the girls do their hair historically accurate. She and I work together on just finding little passions in the costume world. I’d definitely say my inspiration for loving costume so much would be my mom,” Chandler said.

Costumes can speak volumes in defining a character or inspiring an actor.

“Costumes have a lot of meaning,” she said. “It’s an important detail that often goes unnoticed, which I honestly don’t mind. I love just putting in little details that I or the other actors or techies will notice but not necessarily the audience.”

She’s also worked behind the scenes as part of the tech crew, including as a stage manager — calling the cues for lights and sound from the control booth and “making sure  the show runs smoothly.”

Whether onstage or backstage, Chandler is at home in any role. She estimates she’s been in 21 shows over her high school career, an achievement considering her chronic illness.

“The biggest struggle is I have four chronic illnesses that I deal with. Yeah, and so often I will miss school because I'm sick or unable to move,” Chandler said.

Chandler has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), Raynaud's syndrome and chronic fatigue syndrome, which can cause an array of symptoms such as hypermobility, dizziness, fainting, rapid heartbeat, nausea, pain, cold,  numbness, trouble concentrating and extreme exhaustion even after sleeping that can worsen after physical and mental activity. 

It is not unusual for Chandler to use a wheelchair or scooter when she can’t walk because her ankle or her knees are dislocated from the hypermobility. When she’s having a bad flare-up she said she can’t even get out of bed or think clearly. There is no known cure for any of the syndromes.

“It makes everything so much harder because when I’m out. I’m out. And I can’t memorize my lines because I get brain fog from a lot of things and can’t go to practices. I often feel like I’m hindering the process but this theater program has been so kind and so understanding to my whole situation,” she said.

It took years of visits to numerous doctors and specialists, often out of the valley, in search of the correct diagnosis. Chandler said she’s suffered from chronic pain since sixth grade and it was last year the high school senior received the correct diagnosis. 

“I was misdiagnosed several times and it did not help and I thought I was going crazy. Doctors often thought I was faking it. Others said I was being dramatic or just drawing attention to myself but chronic pain is real even though it is invisible.”

Before being diagnosed with EDS she had been misdiagnosed with lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease, and treated for that for about a year. Then she was misdiagnosed with fibromyalgia.

“Often doctors would say there’s nothing we can do, or you’re a medical mystery, or it’s probably just anxiety or hormones, or things like that,” she said.

She said it was her parents, mother, Shelly, and father, Kyle, who have been her best advocates, believing her even when the medical community didn’t.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do anything without my parents advocating for me when I couldn’t advocate for myself. Especially, especially my mom. She’s kick-butt-awesome,” Chandler said smiling.

As a people-pleaser, Chandler said counseling has helped build her confidence to advocate for herself and learn how to cope with the anxiety and stress of living with chronic illness.

“So much to the point that I’m actually in a program to become a disability advocate. It’s called Miss Amazing. It’s a program for girls with disabilities and chronic illnesses. It’s a program to build girls’ confidence.”

In March, she was crowned Teen Miss Amazing for Montana and will represent the state at nationals on July 26-28 in Illinois. She is looking to raise $3,968 to offset costs. 

“I’d like to give people a voice and give girls a voice that are going through a similar experience to me, a voice to say, ‘No, this is real. We are struggling. We need support.’ I don’t want anybody to feel alone or confused about having disabilities or chronic illnesses — ever,” Chandler said.

“If we have more people being aware about that and being supportive of each other, pain becomes so much more manageable as long as you have people by your side,” she later added.

On Saturday, Chandler graduates with a cumulative 3.5 grade point average with Glacier’s fine arts distinction.

“This year I actually got a 4.0 [GPA]. That means a lot to me, especially with how much school I do miss. I'm still able to keep on top of it and catch up,” she said.

For all her achievements in theater specifically, she’s earned a place on the Wolfpack Theatre Founding Members Wall of Fame.

After graduation she wants to pursue her passion for baking and hopes to attend the Culinary Institute of Montana at Flathead Valley Community College to continue her culinary arts studies. She would like to continue with theater and playing the French horn in some capacity, but her dream is to open a bakery and pastry shop. 

“I’ve been passionate about culinary arts ever since I was extremely little,” she said. 

Last year, her lemon huckleberry cake with cream cheese frosting took first at the county fair. Every year for Valentine’s Day she bakes cookies to show her love and appreciation for the teachers and staff at Glacier.

“I love making anything sweet,” she said.  

Chandler even played a character close to her heart, a baker named Mary in the play, “Language Archive,” by Julia Cho.

“I felt like I was mixing two of my loves in one play. She had a whole monologue about sourdough bread that I absolutely loved.”

By the end of the interview, Chandler reflected on the accomplishments she shared, which included adjusting to living in new places after her family moved seven times due to her father’s work.

“Putting it all on paper like this, it just really tells me how much I’ve done,” she said with a broad smile. “Looking back it just makes me so happy that like no matter where I was, or what I was going through I stuck with it — with my dreams and my passions and my goals. It really makes me happy.”

“So wherever life takes me, I’m ready for it,” she said.

People interested in sponsoring Chandler to attend the 2024 National Miss Amazing Summit may donate online at saq2023.funraise.org/fundraiser/andrea-chandler.

Glacier High School’s graduation ceremony starts at 10 a.m. Saturday in the gym. Approximately 310 students are expected to graduate. 

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.

    Andrea Chandler plays Mary and Drew Crane plays George in the Wolfpack Theatre Company’s production of “The Language Archive.” (Courtesy photo)

    Glacier High School culinary students enjoy a dish of coddled eggs at Trovare during the students' tour of Whitefish eateries and restaurants on Friday, May 3. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider