08/23/2026
This Is An Episode You Absolutely Do NOT Want To Miss!
Most of us have an idea of who we think we are and what we believe our life is supposed to look like.
But what happens when life takes that person away?
In this episode of Coffee & Grit, I sit down with Adam Powell for an incredibly powerful conversation about being diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis, losing the ability to walk, grieving the person he used to be, and ultimately making the decision to find out what was still possible.
Before MS, Adam was an athlete, a workaholic, and an on road supervisor for UPS. Within a relatively short period of time, he lost his career, his independence, his ability to drive, and eventually the use of his legs. During COVID, he found himself living almost entirely inside a bedroom at his parents’ house and confronting a question much bigger than whether he would ever walk again.
Who was he if he could no longer be the person he had always known?
Adam had to grieve that person. He had to accept that his old life was gone without accepting that his life was over.
And then he had to ask:
Now what?
Today, Adam walks. He drives. He works out. He rides a bike. He speaks publicly and shares his story with others.
Not because MS disappeared.
Not because positive thinking magically changed his circumstances.
But because Adam decided to keep discovering what he could do instead of allowing a diagnosis to make that decision for him.
One of the most powerful moments in our conversation comes near the end when Adam talks about how easily his story could have gone in another direction.
Instead, he says:
“I made the choice to live.”
This episode is about MS, but it is also so much bigger than MS.
Eventually, life gives all of us a moment when the person we were, the plan we had, or the future we expected is no longer available to us.
We may not get to choose what happened.
But we still have to answer the question that comes next.
Now what?
