By Heather Cass, Publications Manager, Penn State Behrend

A college assignment became something much more for Hayden Adams: his first published children’s book.

Adams, who earned a  degree in Finance at Penn State Behrend in 2025, wrote The Boy Who Couldn’t Wait as the final project for LLED 215N: Children’s Picture Books as Multimodal Texts, which he took during his junior year.

“We all have a handful of projects that we just want to get done and over with, but this wasn’t one of those for me,” said Adams, who works as an investment and financial planning associate at Wealth Management Partners in Pittsburgh. “Once I developed the story, it became valuable to me, and I was proud of how it turned out.”

In the time since, the book’s message about gratitude, being present, and appreciating life as it happens became increasingly personal.

“The further removed I was from college, the more the story became true for me,” said Adams.

The book explores what happens when we’re always rushing toward the next goal—something Adams found himself doing as he entered the workforce and began pursuing professional achievements and certifications.

“We spend so much time chasing the next goal, rushing toward the next chapter of life, dreaming about what life will be like ‘once I have this’ or ‘once I achieve that,’” he said. “However, that mindset is a fallacy because there will always be something else to work toward.”

That idea has particular resonance for Adams as a financial planning professional. His work focuses on helping clients prepare for the future, but he also sees value in enjoying the present.

“In the financial planning world, we are planners,” he said. “Planning, sacrifice and delayed gratification have their places in life. But stopping to smell the roses and enjoy the fruits of one’s labor are just as important.”

While Adams enrolled in the children’s picture book class, taught by retired childhood education faculty member Dr. Lisa Parker, simply to fulfill a general education requirement, the experience left a lasting impression.

“That class ended up becoming one of my favorites during my entire college experience,” he said.

Although Adams majored in finance, he said Behrend’s broader curriculum encouraged him to explore subjects he might not otherwise have considered.

“My Behrend experience forced me to do things I wouldn’t do in my normal day-to-day life,” he said. “Taking Gen Ed courses was one of those influences, as they taught me things I wouldn’t have otherwise studied.”

The Boy Who Couldn’t Wait is largely unchanged from the version Adams wrote in college. He updated the illustrations, using AI tools to refine artwork he had originally drawn by hand, and navigated the self-publishing process through Amazon.

He has been encouraged by the response to the book. Parents have reached out to tell him how much they appreciated the story, and his hometown school district and Penn State Behrend purchased copies of the book for their libraries.

For now, Adams plans to stick to business, but he doesn’t rule out the possibility of future publishing projects.

“I don’t have plans to write another book,” he said. “But if I had a strong passion for another story or message I wanted to share, I would consider doing it.”