Fifty Cups of Coffee #17: Adam Sawyer
Date: April 26, 2024
Location: Lionheart Coffee Company, Beaverton, Oregon
How we know each other
Adam and I first met on a press trip to Hawaii, the Big Island, back in 2016. We both live in Oregon and both write about travel, so we would see each other in person every once in a while at press events. Then recently, we went on another press trip to Whistler BC Canada together.
What Adam is doing now
Adam is an Outdoor Travel Writer and Photographer, living in Silverton, Oregon. He writes a lot for NW Travel Magazine, among other publications, and also has a Substack newsletter: Collecting Sunsets. He also speaks regularly on the topic of grieving and healing in the great outdoors.
Three questions
During these Fifty Cups of Coffee chats, I ask each person the same three questions. The reasoning behind each is as follows:
Question 1 – Social media makes it easy for other people to think that they know us, when truthfully, we all only see a small sliver of someone’s life and who they really are. This is the interviewee’s chance to share something that is important to them that, for whatever reason, other people may not know.
Question 2 – We all have fears, no matter who are are or where we are in life. This helps connect us and show we are all more alike than we are different.
Question 3 – I believe the answer to this question helps show each person’s true values, passions, and their why in life.
There are no right or wrong answers to any of these. I’m including each person’s answers in first person. Their answers have been edited from my notes for length and clarity, but these are their words.
What is one thing you wish more people knew about you?
“I feel like you might identify with this too because you and I, we bonded over our joie de vivre – our jovial persona. It’s less of an issue now at 50, maybe we’ve aged into people understanding more. But believing that there’s anything below surface level; that there there is some depth. It always has been my worst enemy, the all smiles and kind eyes and dick and fart jokes. That’s changed over the last couple of years with the shift in writing. My substack stuff about grieving and nature and life and love. I wish more people could see or care to know that there is more depth to me than Captain Happy Tour Guide, and dick and fart jokes.”
What is your deepest fear?
“This one does get a little more in there. Honestly at this point, my deepest fear would be yet again losing everything. It’s happened to me three times in my life where I’ve had to start completely from scratch. From my prison sentence to being kicked out onto streets to heroin addiction. I had to start fresh after that and my girlfriend at the time, I lost her. But the last loss was particularly brutal.”
“I’m really really happy again, which I didn’t see coming. I was in survival mode so long after that. Now I’m not surviving but thriving. I didn’t want to dare think that I could lose everything again but that’s always a reality. It is a fear because it’s been a trend. But, you can’t live life in fear or be trepidatious about it to stave it off. You have to live openly and love freely. You have to do the best with what you have and let the chips fall where they may.”
If you had unlimited funds, what would you do with your life?
“The unsexy answer is I would house all the unhoused, feed all the unfed, and give medical care to everyone who needs it. Once that is taken care of, I wouldn’t do much differently than what I’m doing now. You can relate to that. I would do what I’m doing now just on a more global scale. Now, I stick with pretty much Western states for my writing. I would do what I’m doing now but perhaps on a larger scale and would involve family more. We would be ‘rolling deep’ as the kids would say, bringing my crew everywhere. Traveling and writing and going outside – just keep doing it!”
Lessons Learned
It’s always great to catch up with Adam in person! Here are a few of my takeaways from our coffee chat:
- Don’t just survive: thrive. Adam has been through so much – more than most people I know. His ability to not just persevere and survive, but to do so with hope in his heart and to thrive, is inspiring.
- Live your life well now. Like many others I have interviewed, Adam wouldn’t change much about his life if he had more money. He would simply do more of what he is doing now. I feel pretty lucky to be surrounded by so many who live their truth now instead of waiting for a different situation.
- Human connection is key. From his loss, Adam began doing talks in local libraries and other community gathering spaces, about grieving and healing in the great outdoors. He started a Substack with personal essays. He shares his talents with others and helps others heal through sharing his own truth. Human connection is the key to all good things.
Learn more about Adam
Follow his writing on Substack.
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Visit my main website: Urban Bliss Life.
Learn more about me at MarlynnSchotland.com.
