Today I am Writing: On Starbucks

This morning I was standing in front of a display case in my local Starbucks. Having gotten my car maintained (in this week of "welcome back to real-world-living"), I decided to maintain my morning get-into-the-office delay via an Americano, freshly made and gift-card paid.

I stood at the display case, holding a $60 coffee maker that had caught my eye and called me to itself, sleek and beautiful and "exactly what I needed!" until I realized that this was likely and simply an installment of my yearly "I am transitioning from semester to summer and hence want to purchase everything in sight in order to maintain some sort of belief that I can control my surroundings," and put the darn thing back.

But then, I returned to the display case, and stood looking at the variety of cold beverages and cheese sticks they had to offer. Suddenly, I was transported back 12 or so years, to a display case that looked exactly the same, but a) held cold sandwiches in triangulated plastic ware and b) existed in the very-much-not-here city of London, England.

For a moment, I could remember the texture of the egg salad sandwich I purchased there (as well as the shock that Starbucks in England sold food.) And I could call up the memory of sitting down to eat it, in that somewhat familiar place, before I explored a less than familiar city. That memory felt more real to me, somehow, than even the Americano waiting present minutes.

Maybe it was my younger self, reminding me to not settle for safety found in a sleek and beautiful coffee maker. Or maybe it was my younger self saying: Live a little, and get it.