One thread tied together the 70-plus students who laughed, cried and reminisced in Legacy Courtyard Thursday night. That common thread was Adam Sattler, a 21-year-old MSU student who passed away last weekend. Classmates, colleagues, roommates, friends and friends-of-friends united to remember Adam’s life, personality and impact.

As the evening approached the 9 p.m. start time of the vigil, a somber crowd of students filled the courtyard. The low hum of conversation was punctuated occasionally by low laughter as students filtered in, hugged one another and prepared to remember one of their own.

After a phone chime and the clock tower reminded everyone that the scheduled time had arrived, a few of Adam’s friends – and Spanish professor Claudia Montoya – took turns remembering Adam and laughing about their time together. But the evening also had its share of more serious tones, as the students and professor warned the assembled crowd against hard drugs and what police suspect to be Adam’s cause of death – fentanyl overdose.

Jayden Jones, nursing junior, said she hopes students take the suspected cause of death seriously.

“I honestly hope it opens people’s eyes. I hope it makes people realize to stop taking pills, stop risking their life doing any of that, cause it’s not worth it, it’s really not,” Jones said.

Richie Hanafin, mass communication sophomore and one of Adam’s close friends, stressed that drug use wasn’t a defining characteristic of Adam. Instead, Hanafin described him as a caring friend who looked out for others.

“He was my best friend, I mean, it’s hard to explain cause I’ve been dealing with a lot these last three days. Just such a good guy, genuine, he just wanted the best for everybody in the situation. He was never selfish, and he wasn’t a pillhead either. I know that that’s a big thing is that he may have been into that stuff. He did there, but it wasn’t heavy, that’s just not who he was,” Hanafin said.

Hanafin met Adam in a speech class, and said they connected immediately. Several of the students gathered described meeting Adam by chance, but then quickly seeing him become an important part of their lives.

Goshua Galvan, business management senior, said he used to go the skate park with Adam frequently. Thought the two fell out of contact for a while, they were reunited as roommates in Sunwatcher over the summer and hung out more. Galvan said seeing the crowd of students that gathered to remember Adam showed how much his friends cared about him.

“It means a lot to me. I mean, obviously some of these people were closer to him but it just says a lot to me personally. Cause to me it just says that this community and this school really cares,” Galvan said.

Elaina Camp, political science and psychology sophomore, was one of the primary organizers for the event. She spoke twice and led a prayer at the event, and stood in the front row of students as they lit candles in remembrance. She said she planned the event because she felt Adam deserved the memorial.

“Because I loved Adam, so much, and I just, I didn’t want to do nothing for him. He didn’t deserve for us to act like it just didn’t happen. Cause it hit all of us, we were all very close, I just wanted to get this together for him, just show him some love and stuff,” Camp said.

Jason Jaimes, kinesiology sophomore, echoed Camp’s sentiment and added it was encouraging to see so many people come out to support the event.

“Honestly it makes me like, it makes me really sad at the same time, but it makes me feel good cause he was a good dude. He deserves all this love. Definitely deserves it,” Jaimes said.

While his friends say he deserved to be remembered, business sophomore Sophia Palomo said he didn’t deserve his death at such a young age.

“I was close with Adam. He was like my bestie, we had so many plans together. And he just changed my life, like every time I saw him he had this big old smile on his face, like he always just had something to say. I don’t know, he just didn’t deserve it,” Palomo said.

Now, after his passing at just 21 years old, Adam’s friends are faced with moving forward without him.

“Nothing is the same, I’ll say that. Nothing is the same without Adam,” Jones said.

Jaimes lamented Adam’s loss, and said now his friends owe it to Adam to keep going.

“It’s terrible, knowing that he’s not gonna continue life with us, he’s not gonna grow with us, see the future with us. But at the end of the day we gotta do it for him. Can’t let it be in vain,” Jaimes said.

On Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022 at 1 pm in Lucy Park friends will gather to remember Adam.