A Love Letter to the Local Coffee Shop
It’s the smell of coffee, the buzz of conversation, that feeling of being at home when you walk inside. There’s something very unique about these spaces, and from a very young age, I was always entranced by the idea of a coffee shop. They were these magical places that somehow expand beyond the sum of their parts. Something about the combination of over-priced coffee, a comfortable aesthetic and free WiFi results in the perfect environment. An environment where things happen, where people come together and where thoughts flow freely. Perhaps it's just me, but the sudden urge to pour my soul out onto a piece of paper with a hot cup of coffee at my side is unique to these spaces.
Like an old friend, they welcome us with open arms, caring little about the baggage we bring in behind us. There’s nothing that can’t be fixed by a warm cup of coffee, a comfy seat and the gentle dance of rain on the window. So we return. We return time and time again to these places of great comfort, a beacon of stability in our otherwise erratic lives. Back to a place that asks nothing of us, where we aren’t forced to do, where we can just — be.
Throughout the many changes I have enacted in my life, a constant has stood out among the countless variables, my local coffee shop. It was where I first came to terms with the fact my original choice of major wasn’t for me, its where I crafted my first film script and its where I have gone when it felt like there was nowhere else to go.
So next time you are working on a research assignment for class, that budget proposal you promised yesterday, a confession of love for your crush or just scrolling through the web; take a second. Put your papers down, close the laptop lid, and just soak in the environment you’ve so hastily taken for granted. Focus on the smell of roasting beans, the warmth of old incandescent lights, a faint hum of an almost familiar song. Look around you, linger on each and every face; piece together their story, their purpose for entering this sacred chamber. Enjoy every second you spend in these little shops, love them as they have loved you and always remember to give back; because more often than not, people like you are all they have.
