Ambiance
Being alone doing work in a coffee shop is so calming. Even if I’m working hard on a difficult assignment, or stressing about an upcoming test, there is a feeling of peace that pervades the atmosphere. I think coffee shops are made to feel like that. Between the ambient, dim lighting, and the calming music — songs you’ve never heard, but they still feel familiar — and scent of coffee floating in the air. People come to a coffee shop for the coffee, for the caffeine. But people sit and stay in a coffee shop for the calm workspace it provides. A place to do work in peace where everyone around you is doing the same. I don’t know what they’re working on, or what song is playing in their headphones, or where they’re going after this. I don’t even really know if they’re working at all. But as I look around, the people sitting at the tables surrounding me all seem to be working on something. The girl to my left is writing something on a notebook, glancing up every few moments at her laptop screen. The group to my right is engaged in a conversation, but each person has an open laptop, and some even have a textbook next to them. Sitting at the tables in front of me, and behind me, everyone is working. Everyone is working in peace.
But working at a coffee shop is not always peaceful, I am noticing. In fact, for some, it is not peaceful at all. The crowded Starbucks I am sitting in now is not a place of calming, productive energy for everyone here. For the baristas, being in this coffee shop may be the most stressful part of their day.
I’m sitting at the main Starbucks on campus, at peak coffee hour. It’s 9:39 in the morning. Students are rushing in to pick up their order, to be able to have some caffeine in time for their 9:45 class.
For the workers, the baristas, the energy is anything but peaceful. Someone is taking orders, lining up cups written with names, and what type of milk, and what flavor syrup. The oven is backed up with tickets, the oven counting down the seconds until each breakfast sandwich or pastry is ready. The barista standing next to it looks as though she wishes that she could make the time go faster, to stop the longing looks of students wistfully waiting for their breakfast, as if it’s her fault the time won’t go faster and their sandwich isn’t ready yet.
I wonder if she has even had breakfast. Maybe she thought that she would have time to eat something at work, forgetting how quickly the stressful bustle picks up, leaving her with no time to do anything but worry about handing students their croissant.
The rush continues; the workers don’t seem at peace at all. I’m sure they are counting down the hours until they each can leave. Their place of work is so different from my place of work, but we are in the same place. I wonder if even my presence is adding stress to their morning, as if just seeing every seat full in front of them is only adding to the overwhelmed feeling I’m sure the baristas are carrying. They’re completely submerged in the stress of the rush; I wish I could help. The baristas are yelling quick orders to each other, or checking that there’s still a stock of vanilla scones to serve, or running back to refill ice, tapping mobile orders as completed. There’s a million tasks asked of them right now, and none of these tasks spark serenity. This work is not peaceful.
For me, working in a coffee shop is so calm, the ambiance is perfect. I wonder if the workers would even describe this place to have an ambiance at all.
Who: a student, working calmly
Where: Starbucks in Slane at High Point
When: Tuesday morning on the second week of school
What I’m drinking: an iced latte with oatmilk.
