Sometimes I take a few short moments to actually take in what's going on around me. Most of the time, these moments are paired with a cup of good coffee. I recently read a book entitled "How Starbucks Saved My Life". An appropriate book for a Seattle native to read. Not that the book is about a literal cup of coffee saving someones life but on how the experience of working at a Starbucks branch in New York city changed one mans view of the world and the people that are its make-up.
Ever since my first cup of espresso at 14, I realized that coffee is so much more than a tasty treat intended to wake you up and swig as quickly as you can to get your morning going or re-vitalize you in the late hours... No. Coffee should be a meeting point. A time of reflection. Yoga for the palate. Like tea is for the Britts, coffee is for Americans, which we borrowed from the Italians.
At 20 I took my first step into Barista-hood. I got a job working the mid-shift in a tiny shack of a drive-thru espresso stand supplying the masses of Conway and freeway drivers with the ever addictive stimulant of espresso and a short conversation. I do not exaggerate when I say that in the 2 minutes I spent with these people each day I became the bar-tender to their emotional lives. I knew more about them than their mothers did. Mike, with his iced 20-ounce (that's a Venti for those who only speak Starbucks) Irish Cream Breve, lost his job and I was the first person that knew about it. Mike came at the slow time of day just so that we could chat for a few extra minutes each afternoon. Glenn always came twice a day, brought his beat up Dad-mug and while I filled it with a frothy Hazelnut Latte, he would share his idea's of sustainable farming and give the barista's fruits and vegetables from his farm. He'd talk for hours if we let him, but he always saw when we glanced up to see someone lining up behind him and he would always continue his conversation without pause as he drove off. I never did finish a conversation with that guy. Raine brought her 3 year old daughter with her for a decaf mocha in the mornings and we chatted about life thru the car window. These people have stayed with me and I think about them often.
I always played my mix CD's when I made coffee. I had the "Vintage Mix", the "Smooth Mix" and the "Kick A** Mix". We had a rule at the coffee stand I worked in: No country music, no Rap or hard rock music allowed. I just can't imagine handing someone a cup of coffee thru the drive-thru window at the same time as "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" is floating out the window as well. Gross. I'm sharing life with these people and that life is classy. Oh yes. Ella, Billie, Aretha, Ryan and Bruce. These friends of mine got me through long days and enticed people to share with me. Even now my house is like a cafe. You walk in, I say "Hi! So good to see you! Can I get you anything?", my espresso machine already primed and ready to pull shots - decaf, half-caf, breve, latte, vanilla, chocolate... Long day and need a shot of Kaluah in that iced latte? I'm on it. All the while my favorite artists are wafting thru the house, enticing conversation and pulling at our emotions, creating a sound-track to our lives. Music has a connection to the emotion like nothing else, and caffine has the unique ability to break down the barriers of even the most timid guest.
I feel like the training of attitude and speech that I learned as a barista has infiltrated my every-day life and it is a good thing. In 2 minutes I can get a lot of information out of you and you won't think anything of it and I'll order your drink for you at Starbucks and make sure its just as you like it and as I walk out the door to wherever I'm going, wish your sister better health and tell you I'll see you around. I think we all have that ability in us and many of us use it to our advantage while others say they are introverts or too shy to serve people in this way. Personally, I no longer believe in intro- or extroverts as we think of them today. I believe we are all just people, differing looks, differing opinions, differing lifestyles and political views but still just people. All of us have a story, all of us have something unique to share and often, if we get over our said "shyness" we'd learn a lot from these people that we walk shoulder to shoulder with in the grocery store. As a recovering "introvert" ( I was painfully, overly self-aware), it was always nice when I'd spill a cup of coffee on myself and some "extrovert" would give me a handful of napkins and tell me that I'm not the first person to do that and certainly not the last and to have a wonderful day. I learn a lot from these people. The ones that take the extra 2 seconds to make sure I have a good day despite the coffee stained shirt and 2nd degree burns. And I love them for it. I learned that if it makes me feel this good to have someone care about me, so randomly and so easily, that I could do that for other people and it doesn't hurt me one bit. Quite the opposite.
I have a particular friend, Adrian, who lives and breathes amazingness in interacting with people. I have learned so much from merely watching him say hello. He very naturally yet very purposefully draws people into comfortable conversation and finds a way to connect you to what you are most passionate about, what you need most or who you would identify with best. Quite a few of my close friends I met thru an introduction from Adrian. He purposefully lives in a part of town that has more of the homeless and the urban poor than most communities. It allows him to interact with them every day and learn how to serve them better. Adrian heads up an organization called ServeLA (www.servela.org) to assist the large community of people that, for any number of reasons, struggle to gain what most of us take advantage of everyday; education, food, job, shelter or a place to lie down at night. I am inspired by him to do more than I am now, to be more and to do more to purposefully serve those around me.
I find myself talking a lot about bettering our community, about doing more for the people we live around, about changing the world. These things can happen. Your dream for your life and the lives around you can come true. You can repair a broken relationship. Life may not be like it is in the movies, but I don't know if you've noticed - most of the time great things happen to people in movies because one of the characters isn't afraid to ask the first question, speak the first word, give the first smile or, when the occasion comes along, to save someone's life. We're here for a purpose. I don't know if you know that. You, yes you, are where you are for a purpose. So do something about it.
