The fall semester of my sophomore year of college was when I first became a coffee drinker. I was taking a 7:30 drawing class, and when I got back to my room at 9:30 two of my roommates would just be getting up and around, and Jamie’s coffee pot would be brewing. I had an hour before my next class, and this became the most treasured part of my day. I would get some chocolate and play my guitar and drink the extra cup of coffee that Jamie always brewed, and it was lovely and peaceful.
This morning I got up at 5:50, so that I could get dressed and have my breakfast (oatmeal with peanut butter, honey and banana chips) before I opened at the coffee shop down the street, where I’ve been working for the past month and a half. I was kind of grumpy. I’m going to be doing a lot of early mornings this year, and already it’s dark and cold when I walk to work. I shudder to think of the long Vermont winter that awaits me. But by the time I’d eaten and was on my way, I was feeling brighter and once I’d ground the morning’s coffee and opened the shop, I was in a really positive mood.
I got off work at 9:00. My first class of the semester starts at 10:00, so I had an hour to come home and take care of odds and ends before class (which I used to write this). I stayed at the coffee shop for a few minutes while I finished the latte I’d started drinking during my shift, walked home in the sunshine, and as I got on my computer and roommate headed for the shower I realized that I was in a familiar place–I was back in that hour between classes, that morning hour of peace that I loved so much the fall of my sophomore year of college.
I expect that I’ll work a lot of opening shifts before class this year. And some days I will be tired and groggy, and in the winter it will be dark and cold, but I’m looking forward to it. I like my coworkers and our regulars, I like making coffee and providing people with their morning caffeine. And I look forward to the gaps between work and class, the time I get for myself, where I can grab some peace for the day, and ready myself to face the world.