INTERVIEW: Sam Javor

Where did you grow up? How did you end up in Columbus?
I grew up in central Michigan, a few miles from a small town, on a farm where we raised hay to sell to the Amish in Indiana and Ohio. On my 16th birthday we moved to Ohio for my mom’s job.

What was one of the best parts of childhood?
My parents gave me a lot of opportunities growing up. I’m an Eagle Scout and had the chance to go to The First Russian International Jamboree in 1994 when I was 15. Russia had spectacular museums and the architecture was so very different.

What are some of the jobs you’ve had in your life?
I joined the military during high school. I was a paralegal in the Army Reserve, that’s how I got my entrance into the legal field. It was a 20 hour a week job while I was also in a band. Then I became a technology nerd, got into audio production, then video production and my current work is doing video for a court reporting firm. There was also a time that I was the house drummer at The Dolphin Lounge in Gahanna.

Who is someone who was influential in your life?
A roommate who got me on the path of Linux and open source software. I was hosting my band’s website on my home computer, in a closet, on Windows 95 and he invited me to use “a real operating system” and I’ve been using it ever since.

What are some of your favorite activities?
I volunteer a lot. I’ve volunteered at the OLF conference (Ohio LinuxFest), I run the live stream at my church, I have volunteered with Columbus Fashion Week. I also enjoy hiking, walking and playing drums.

I know you said you love small towns, after living her a long time, how do you feel about Columbus?
I kind of joke that we don’t have any natural beauty (like mountains or large bodies of water) so we eat and make art. The art scene has always been something diverse with a lot of very skilled people. I’ve been in the filmmaking community for a bit and noticed many people are working on their own projects underground and pop up when they’re done while everyone else is still hidden away working on their own projects. Columbus was an amazing place to form a band, but one of the worse places to play, because everyone was in a band!

What are some of your favorite places that don’t exist anymore?
Most of the Short North! Bernies was a cool place to play. I’m glad The Short North Stage is open and doing theater.

What’s on your bucket list?
I’d like to be making music and performing again.

What keeps you coming back to Creative Mornings as a volunteer?
It’s one of the few volunteer groups that gives back to the volunteers. Someone is always paying attention to the details in their purview. We did a workshop last month with Just Bloom. I’m trying to go back to being self-employed and workshops like that as well as working with the other volunteers are really valuable because they pull me out of my own bubbles to get me to grow.

In what other ways has Creative Mornings influenced your life?
I try to challenge myself to meet a new person each month, as an introvert it’s something that I wouldn’t do were it not for Creative Mornings. We had a UX designer who showed us how to graph user experience, sharing that negative experiences might be related to a previous experience earlier in the day. I used the technique she shared to change my commute. I have to drive from Johnstown to downtown, so that was a lot of time on freeways. I was often starting my workday frustrated or angry. I started taking side roads to avoid the problem spots and a little thing like that has made my work days a lot better over the last two years. Another example would be that last month’s theme was ‘vibrant’ and almost all of my clothes were black. That event led me to find a shirt with color that I normally wouldn’t be comfortable with, so now I have this bright green shirt I’m wearing today. There’s a lot of little prompts and influences like that which add up over time.

Interview by Rachel Joy Barehl a mindful matchmaker and photographer in Columbus.