Fifty Cups of Coffee #47: Ethan Schotland
Date: December 24, 2024
Location: home
How we know each other
Ethan is my first-born child; the one who made me a mom. I love this kid (adult! He’s an adult at age 20 now!) to the moon and back, and I am so very proud of him.
What Ethan is doing now
Ethan is a sophomore studying History at the University of Oregon. He also works for me on Urban Bliss Life during his school breaks.
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 can’t really help this, but I wish more people knew that even though I’m not looking at you or if I did not respond right away, I did hear what you said.”
What is your deepest fear?
“My greatest fear is drowning. My second biggest fear is spiders that are like bigger than the palm of my hand, and also spiders on the ceiling.”
If you had unlimited funds, what would you do with your life?
“I think I’d want to go in one of those rockets that all those millionaires go into space. I think I’d want to do that once. Otherwise my life would be the same. If I won the lottery right now, I don’t think anything would change.”
Lessons Learned
I always love any opportunity to chat with my son, and as you can see from his answers here, he is less verbose than his mother 🙂. Here are a few takeaways from our conversation:
- GenZ is listening, even when you think they are not. Ethan is an amazing listener, but he listens and processes information the way I believe most of his generation does, which is in a way that older generations do not often understand. And I am so glad he shared what he did for his first answer, because he’s definitely not alone in this. In fact, when my daughter Cate (who is 17 years old) read his answer, she said that she feels the same way. I wish more people of my generation and older didn’t have the same expectations of direct eye contact and communication.
- Money doesn’t change everything. I love Ethan’s answer to the third question. The first part reminds me of his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut. And the second part is 100% him. I can’t see him changing
- Brevity doesn’t mean a lack of interest. Ethan provided me with the second shortest answers in this 50 Cups of Coffee project, and I have so much respect for that. He says what he needs to say – period. End of. And I wish I could do that. I wish more people would do that. Like I said, he’s an amazing listener, and just because he doesn’t respond at length in conversations, doesn’t mean he’s not interested or doesn’t have opinions. He simply choses his words carefully and doesn’t over-verbalize.
- While his answer to the first question was brief, there are a lot of things I wish more people knew about Ethan. I wish people knew how kind and caring he is. How very thoughtful he is. How hard he works and how much he has gone through to be where he is today. How funny he is — he’s so smart and quick-witted and hilarious; he always cracks me up! I feel so fortunate that I get to see all of these amazing sides to him that other people don’t. He’s an amazing human being, and I am so very very proud of him!
Thank you so much for taking the time to participate in my 50 Cups of Coffee project, Ethan!
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