Meet Ira Thackeray

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ira Thackeray. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ira, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?

Ira Thackeray, Founder of Tree of Life Stories

My creativity has definitely seen its ups and downs since the very moments I discovered how powerful and amazing it was. Sometimes, it can be hard to feed your imagination and creativity, and that’s when I have learned blocks happen. It is very clear that having to struggle with burnout is difficult, especially when you want to use your talent and creativity, but you find it hard to.

In my experience, the ways that I have found to keep my creativity alive are minimalistic but effective. For one, if I find myself at what I think is my creative limit, or perfectionism is driving me to the brink, I try to “go with the flow” with whatever I am creating. For example, If it’s art, I like to doodle in the margins and not worry about what the final piece should look like. If I am trying to write but frustration arises, I like to move to the side and maybe start brainstorming.

Some of the best ideas come from not going headfirst into something, but by thinking it out step by step. It doesn’t matter if you classify yourself in the “creative” group or not, I feel that thinking outside of the box starts with finding your passion. For me, that would be reaching out to others and making a difference in the world by using my talents. Tree of Life Stories has definitely helped me delve more into that passion.

Creativity, imagination, using the uniqueness inside of you-these things aren’t necessarily in need to be kept “alive”. I would say that passion is the spark that drives these things, and even though the flame might be on the verge of smoldering out, it will always come back and dazzle those around you.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I’m a founder of Tree of Life Stories LLC. My mom, Shweta Thackeray encouraged me from the very beginning. I am a middle schooler, and love to draw and write stories. Professionally, I am interested in being an author (I have already written and published a few books), and am super excited for the next edition of Soul Stir 2025.

I’d like to talk about Tree of Life Stories, which is a publishing entity that created a magazine called Soul Stir last summer of 2024. We are coming back with a second issue, and cannot wait to start this summer!

Soul Stir is Richmond’s first magazine that is written both by kids (all articles written by my peers and me), and for kids in our community. You can find Soul Stir at many of Richmond’s public libraries, retail stores, and schools! We as a team also visit fun places, for example, an inside tour of the White House at Washington DC, the Virginia State Capitol and we volunteered at Richmond SPCA. Also we meet inspiring and interesting people and love to hear about their passions, work, and stories. We met Dr. Abubaker and learnt about drug addiction and its dangers.

Recently, we participated in the Richmond Youth Business Fair and we received “Outstanding Youth Entrepreneur Award” for our remarkable creativity, business strategies, and dedication to our venture!

Please do visit us at www.treeoflifestories.org and let us know your thoughts.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Taran Ravela is one of our core team contributor’s and his response is as below:

There are many qualities, skills, and areas that are important, but 3 of these skills stand out the most in my journey.

One is being able to create original ideas because creating unique thoughts helps me progress in my journey. It helped me by intriguing people into wanting to learn and be a part of what we are doing. Another thing is being able to explain and speak to people and intrigue them in case they might want to be a part of what we are doing.

Secondly, I find that unique ideas are easier to explain to people and communicating made me grow my skills when speaking about the goal our group has.

Finally, being able to open about your feelings is valuable, even if you don’t realize it, Expressing compassion can engage the listener and further propagate kindness.

My advice is to go out in the community and share your thoughts and ideas. I find it amazing to be able to practice these skills and implement them. Being able to create original ideas isn’t something that comes naturally; you have to be able to use your imagination and your creative thinking to execute it. Speaking clearly and using your “voice” is something that is very difficult to master, but if you do it, it will significantly help you with finding contacts and making connections. Lastly, expressing your feelings is something you might not realize is essential, but once you learn that everybody will be interested in how you feel and that makes a huge difference.

Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?

Reyansh Gupta, is one of our other core contributor’s, and his response is as below:

It would be best to try to be well-rounded in skills you are not as strong in. If you focus on a few of your strengths, you could miss out on other experiences and new opportunities you might be interested in and good at. Sometimes, you won’t know how exciting something is until you try it yourself.

Being well-rounded also means being prepared in more situations and growing in different ways. Additionally, it’s fun to challenge yourself and see how much you can improve. I had experienced it myself. When I was in 4th grade, we all had to learn to play a Recorder. I was not good at it at first, but I put in a lot of effort and got selected as one of the solo performers at the end of the year, which sparked a new interest and confidence in me. I voluntarily opted to play Saxophone in 6th grade, which I think I am getting much better at and enjoy playing.

Vihaan Baddam, a core contributor, has his response to the question below: How did you find your purpose?

In my sight, purpose means feeling empathy and growing through the vast opportunities though our ginormous community. I never had paid much attention to giving back to the community, however after many various experiences my mindset slowly changed. One of my favorite experiences was volunteering at the Richmond Marathon, a huge sporting event in Richmond. I really enjoyed seeing the smiles on the people’s faces after handing them their medals. It hadn’t occurred to me overnight that I loved giving back to the community, I realized after multiple embarrassing moments. I still remember deep down in my heart when I spilled water on my clothes during the Tacky Light Run. When I handed out medals the person I gave it to would stare at me momentarily. I never worked for any hours, I did it to see the smiles on people’s faces and for them to say “thank you!” that’s what truly would make my day. When I realized my passion, I truly felt like I was a charitable person.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://treeoflifestories.org
• Instagram: treeoflifestories
• Facebook: tree of life stories
• Youtube: @TreeofLifeStories