S.M. Adams is a licensed secondary school teacher and experienced college instructor with over 10 years’ experience in the field of education. She holds graduate training in both American History and Adolescent Education. A confessed late bloomer Sarah returned to college as a student-parent to uncover her life’s passion for education and helping others. For years of community service and volunteer work, S.M Adams was awarded the prestigious New York Life fellowship from the Colin Powell Center for Leadership and Service in 2008 and received the Phoenix Award from Urban Resource Institute thereafter. She also briefly spent time on the policy committee of HEAASC, the Higher Education Alliance for Advocates of Students with Children. As a domestic violence advocate, she has appeared on NYC Fox 5, NYC Bronx 12 as well as in Marie Claire magazine. A graduate of City College of New York and Pace University this New York transplant by way of Jamaica W.I. loves the summertime, reading on the beach, eating mangoes and spending time with her son and husband.
Arise and Walk: From the Sidelines of Life to the Next Level is her latest book.
Visit her website at www.ariseandwalk.com. Connect with her on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
What was the inspiration behind Arise & Walk: From the Sidelines of Life to the Next Level?
I’ve always played with the idea of writing but really found my voice and got serious at the start of the pandemic. I used to clap with my neighbors out the window every
evening at 7pm when the nurses and doctors ended their shift. After a while I felt like that was not enough that I needed to be doing more to help out. The idea came to me that based on how devastating Covid-19 was many people would need to reimagine and reinvent themselves. And as someone who made a life transformation a few years ago I decided that maybe I could write a book that would be useful.
What kind of message is your book trying to tell your readers?
The main message of the book is that it is possible to reimagine and reinvent ourselves. That life transformation is not only a ‘mamby pamby’ term used by patronizing well-meaning friends to get us to feel better when something bad happens but there are actual real-life mindset shifts and action steps we can take to reimagine and reinvent ourselves.
Have you suffered from writer’s block and what do you do to get back on track?
No usually once I decide to write it generally flows. Maybe because I am a non-fiction author and mostly write from experience so the information is already there. If anything I might struggle with keeping my voice active and not becoming overly passive with my language. In graduate school while writing papers my professor often complained that I was writing in a passive voice.
Which holiday is your favorite and why?
I love the end of year holidays. Growing up in the Caribbean my grandmother always made it so fun, lots of rum cake, spicy dishes, treats and yummy sorrel drink. Now as an adult living in NY it is still fun, I’ve continued the tradition of that rum cake and other dishes from my childhood. I also do an overall end of year cleaning, change all the bedsheets to redecorate for the new year. I love the idea of starting over every January and always try to have at least one goal. With my son and husband I’ve also added some distinctly American traditions to our yearly ritual such as watching the Macys Thanksgiving Parade, following Santa as he travels the world delivering gifts via Norad and getting dressed up to drink Sparkling Cider as the ball drops on NY Eve in Times Square.
If we were to meet for lunch to talk books, where would we go?
To a bench in front of Manhattan’s East River with a picnic basket of sandwiches and Orangina. Its quiet and the ripples in the water would allow us to reflect on the books.
What do you like to do for fun?
Like most authors I love to read, every day I read at least 10 news articles, that could be an occupational hazard as a history/social studies teacher I usually incorporate current events in my teaching. Over the years I’ve gotten very picky in terms of my reading. I also enjoy a good mystery and I love, love, love historical fiction movies. Like a typical island girl nature I find most of nature very exciting, I enjoy things like sitting in front of the river or any water body, looking up at trees to see if there are nests and listening to the first chirps of the spring birds.
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