Whether she was hiking in beautiful landscapes, painting incredible vistas, playing clarinet or simply having dinner with her roommates, Sarah Yager lived life to a degree greater than words can explain.
“It’s hard to put her into words,” Katie Tindel said. “I want to do her justice, but I know it’s not going to happen.”
Tindel, a biomedical engineering junior and friend, said Sarah Yager was a genuinely kind person, but she knew how to joke as well.
“She was just kindhearted even if she was super sarcastic,” Tindel said.
Cheryl Yager, her mother, said her daughter really enjoyed her time at A&M, inside and outside the classroom.
“She loved math and the engineering department was just so fun for her,” Cheryl Yager said. “She enjoyed math and working with teams to solve problems. She and some friends of hers went and just had a good time at school, but obviously worked real hard, too.”
Along with being a junior in the mechanical engineering program, Sarah Yager had a creative streak. She played clarinet for three years in the A&M Symphonic Band and painted in her free time.
“I would be ridiculously impressed because she was in these ridiculously hard classes and also researching and I don’t know how she had time to do that, and read the millions of books that she read and then go rock climbing with me three times a week,” Tindel said. “She was just really generous with her time and used it on the important things. She got what was important.”
Hayley Groves, Sarah Yager’s roommate and civil engineering junior, recalled how she had asked her to paint something for the living room at their apartment. She jumped on the opportunity and began work on a piece that included four canvases. The scene depicted a desert landscape, and Groves said Sarah Yager’s abilities were far from lacking, although the painting remains unfinished.
“She always joked that it was never good enough, it took her forever to get it finished and she still didn’t like it, didn’t get it finished by the time we hung it up,” Groves said. “She would paint for hours, and we would talk to her while she painted.”
Along with her artistic endeavors, Sarah Yager also had a sweet tooth, and Groves said she often indulged with homemade baking.
“We always cooked and I would bake for her and she is infamous for eating three-fourths of the baked goods that I would make,” Groves said. “She had a huge sweet tooth. She once ate, like, 17 cupcakes in three days.”
Cheryl Yager said her daughter enjoyed the outdoors and they shared memories of a number of hiking trips, including one at Zion National Park. Sarah Yager liked the park and a spot called Angels Landing so much that she talked a group of friends into taking a return trip last summer.
Tindel accompanied Sarah Yager on that trip, and remembered her enthusiasm for their common interest.
“She kind of planned the whole thing, like I helped her a little bit, but she took the initiative and I was so glad to have somebody like that who would go do crazy things with me like drive all the way to Utah three days after finals to go hiking in the middle of nowhere,” Tindel said.
Cheryl Yager said although Sarah stretched herself in lots of different directions, she remained grounded.
“Some of it was just for personal fulfillment, but she did, she had so much energy and so much passion for life, and when she was enthusiastic about something, it was very contagious,” Cheryl Yager said.