The Coffee Experience and You

Rather than jump on the bandwagon and discuss the disappointment of advertisements during this year’s Superbowl (there were some gems, don’t get me wrong - just not a lot of breathtaking segments), I’ve decided to write about something else that will be more worth your time in the long haul.  Coffee.

Now now, I can hear your grumble already.  I’m not talking about the pretentious coffee that snooty people clench onto whilst hustling down the sidewalk to Macy’s.  I’m not even talking about the coffee shop I’m sitting in right now (by the way table-neighbor, you’d be feet-tapping too if you were listening to these guys).  I’m talking about the Coffee Experience.  

Experience?  The last time I put any thought to experience was when I was updating my resume.  Yet think about it - many Americans suck coffee down several times a day as if its needed for zombie apocalypse survival.  It’s a lifeblood.  I think its safe to say caffeine has a lot to do with it, but we can get that jolt of the friendly drug in other ways - through soda, energy tonics, etc.  So why do so many of us default to coffee?  I’ll tell you: taste for some, the promise of a familiar comfort for most.

I am not a morning person.  I never was and highly doubt I’ll ever be.  One of the things that make getting out of a pillowy, heavenly bed less soul-sucking is a cup of coffee.  Hot, aromatic, and punished with huge amounts of half & half.  The experience of wrapping my fingers around a warm mug and taking that first gulp of “Hello World!” really does something.

We can recall those Folgers ads that harken a good-timey feeling of family and love like this one. Awwweeeeeeee.  This ad isn’t selling coffee of course.  It’s selling the experience of Christmas Morning with loved ones...or at least those you have to tolerate in order to get a good cup of coffee around here.

Yet for me, Fair Trade and responsible coffee is much more important than a brand name.  This is why I think you should check out Peace Coffee. Establishments such as this one pay attention to where their beans come from, assuring farmers are getting paid and treated as all humans should be...with fairness and respect.  

That being said, it takes more than a feel-good advertisement to buy your favorite coffee.  My Coffee Experience is directly related to human rights and justice.  When I clench onto my reusable coffee mug knowing the farmers who sweated in their crops are getting compensated for their hard work, I feel good.  I feel like I’m not hurting someone with my caffeine vice.  I’m assisting in their livelihood.  What’s your Coffee Experience?

In my office, it seems, the coffee machine is absolutely a god.  In the morning you’ll find a good chunk of employees standing around it, groggy like a cowboy’s horse at the watering hole after a day’s wrangling.  The machine churns and spits out brown nectar in a constant stream and soon the line wains and people return to their offices and desks, ready to start the day just as they have been for years.  When the midday hits, it happens all over again.  Some are more dependant than others.  But you WILL know when the machine’s broken.  A roar of agonizing screams is usually the first clue.

This isn’t to criticize the working person’s ritual, especially since my blood-to-coffee ratio is probably worse anyway.  The marketing nerd that I am, however, wants to dissect this behavior to pieces.  Coworkers have their special mugs or use the ones provided by the office, doctor their drink in their own special way, and have the same ritual for each cup, each day. This experience of a cup of coffee has personal branding all over it.

Travel mugs can be as mundane as Bueller’s roll-calling teacher or as full pf pizazz as a jar of glitter and Carrot Top.  Coffee can be taken razor straight or with a gazillion flavoring options that make your head spin...on purpose.  Beans are grown in different regions and roasted at differing temperatures and lengths to create blends that tickle your tongue differently every time.  Coffee can create a community all while hoisting individuality high in the air.

Coffee is a global connection.  And that’s why it means so much more than a hot beverage to us.  It’s an experience we seek out daily.  I think it’s time for cup number two.  Okay, you caught me. Three. It’s cup number three.
 

Dissonance Much?

Hey Twenty-Somethings, long time no witty exchange!

Whether this post finds you undergoing the job search or serving the less-than-desirable job to make ends meet - or even living the dream - it's time for 2012.  Yes, it's either the end of the world as we know it, or another chance to make some resolutions to forget about by mid-February.

Here's an interesting angle on life while sorting resolutions, one that you'll think is complete bullshit until you experience it for yourself: dissonance when you logically have everything going for you.  Know what I'm talking about?  Maybe not.  But you will.  Oh, you will.

You see, Twenty-Somethings, you've worked so hard to be where you are.  Whether you're in the workforce or pursuing an education, you've made the choice to see what's beyond the paisley couch.  That's admirable.  Let's even venture to say you've made friends, get along with your family, even have a significant other that actually puts up with your "unique personality."  Roof over your head, food in your stomach, internet at your fingertips.  Your Klout score is even higher than average.  Life is good.

So why, then, do you feel this way?  Like something's missing, like something's unknown, like something is just plain not right.  You find your day-to-day less rewarding than before.  You don't know where you're going, those goals that you met haven't been replaced yet, and you look around to see everything whizzing past - you're in a free fall.

"What the hell?!" You grumble, "Didn't I just lift myself from this?  Shouldn't I be exuberantly happy to the point of pure disgust?  Life is good, it could be so much worse, I'm fortunate and lucky and appreciate every ounce of it."  Yet, you can't shake it.  Something itches.

Well, you can't just scratch it.  It could upset everything.  But has it ever occurred to you that perhaps you're meant for even more?  That this may be good, but why settle for good when you have great to try for?  Perhaps its a perspective thing.  This nasty little predicament can only really be addressed with another, yes ANOTHER, look inward.

Yeah, I know it, you just soul searched last Tuesday.  How can you fit another one in with everything going on?  Showering is sometimes hard to fit in.  And we all truly thank you for resigning to keep up that habit.  Really.  We mean it.  So here's a simple question - What makes YOU happy?

Oh, well, that's easy, laughter and clean underwear.  Ok, that's excellent, but what else?  Now this is where it gets tough.  Lets get down to the nitty gritty and dig.  You're going to need some booze, probably.  Don't make this activity a hassle, don't let cultural mores and norms act as filters, don't let your mind's voice tell you anything's stupid or impossible or wrong.  This is an exercise to find yourself.  The purer one, buried underneath all that you've learned and the culture you live in.  It's still there.  It's just dancing to Lil Wayne...so please, save it.

I plan to travel the world someday, and it's said that traveling is one way to peel back your walls and find that pure you again.  But I know my wallet isn't really ready for that right now.   And it's a good guess many of yours aren't either.  So travel a different way...separate yourself from your norm.  Switch up your routine.  Take a day to explore that park down the street you finally noticed yesterday.  Take  a drive.  Then get comfortable with pen and paper, or laptop, or stone and chisel, if you're so inclined.  Then write.  Remember nobody gets to see this but you, unless you want to share, and it doesn't even have to make sense to anyone but YOU.

This can be frightening.  What if you find you really want something that is nowhere near the direction you're heading?  Well, do you really want it?  If so, you're going to continue this dissonance until a breaking point.  Usually, breaking points aren't pretty...recall a certain B. Spears shaving her head and taking a baseball bat to a vehicle?  I'm guessing there was some sort of inner struggle there... Lets agree right now to not go Brittany Spears.  Ever.  It's Toxic.  See what I did there?  Pure gold.

So figure out a map to get to your happiness.  Take your time, but don't drag your feet.  And good luck, we're all counting on you.

When You Realize the Bullet Dodged

Hey Twenty-somethings, are your chins still up yet?

They should be.  Look at what you've accomplished in the few years you've been around.  The pain you've endured, the smiles you've shared, the goals you've met.  Life isn't so bad, right?

Here's a thought for you - ever have a light bulb pop up over your head when you weren't expecting it?  There you are, just minding your own business, perhaps dwelling on something or contemplating the existence of a hybrid rat-mouse that rescues children from bacteria by gently reminding them to wash their hands, when "Ah-ha!"

It all makes sense. 

It may have been something that was a source of sadness, something considered a loss...then it clicked.  It wasn't a loss at all.  It was a lesson, and a close call.  It wasn't something missed...it was dodged.  But you're such a ninja you didn't even realized you ducked...badass.

There once was a wise woman that went by the royal title of Beyonce who wrote a beautiful sonnet about a love gone wrong being the "best thing [she] never had."  Wise Beyonce was considered a goddess among many who  just simply should have "put a ring on it." She encouraged those with troubles to take their worries and stick them in "a box to the left."  Wisdom beyond her years, indeed.

Alright, lame puns aside, she really does have a point in her latest overplayed single.  She thought she lost something, in this case a lover - but, oh wait, he's really a jerk!  Whew, Beyonce!  Close one!

It doesn't have to be about relationships either.  What about that job you didn't get?  It seemed like a dream at first, but think about it.  Do you REALLY want to move there?  Do you REALLY want to spend your days in that particular position?  There may be a very dark side you didn't noticed in the glare of awesome you encountered.  Losses can really be a gain in the right perspective. 

So if you're bumming about something that didn't work out as planned, take a break.  Knock it off.  Stop it.  Instead, let us look at that lovely silver lining, shall we?  Maybe it's okay after all.  Maybe it was your bullet dodged.       

Take Life and Smack it in the Face.

Hey, Twenty-Somethings, how's life? 

Some of us are still in post-graduate free-fall, hunting the job market arena like stealthy wolves in business clothes, resumes cocked and loaded.  Some of us have hit a fortunate turn, landing our first "real" jobs-the ones our goals have led us to.  And yet some of us are floundering while others are exactly where we want to be.  It's like a reality TV show with less of a tan. 

Yet one common thread I'm noticing among my peers is the longing to find something, whether that something is a job, a dream, or a companion.  Despite our best efforts to prove how independent and strong we are, us Twenty-Somethings always have the door open for a special person to waltz through.  We get our first places, we get our cars, we buy groceries with one serving in mind--hoping to one day share it all.  

And when it doesn't work out?  What happens when one venture turns sour?  Our hearts hurt, we doubt we'll ever be able to share again.  Some of us wallow, tailspin, or crash into Wiley Coyote's brick wall.  Then we pick ourselves up, dust off the Acme paint, and breathe.  After some hard-earned healing, we smile again.  

This time, that smile is wiser, more mature, and excited for the next opportunity.  We take the smile out for coffee, out with friends, out to the grocery store.  We are only an improvement of our selves.  Maya Angelou is quoted as stating, "I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it."     Why should all of the pain we feel, over any ordeal, be laid to waste?  Why not take the hurricane by storm until we realize it's strength and make it our own?  Within every unexpected change, with every painful or even happy experience, comes the chance for growth.  But we must choose to bloom.  Take life, look it straight in its crazy eyes, and smack it in the face.

The danger lies in dwelling.  In finding self-pity and letting it bind around us.  How are we to learn when we are huddled in the corner or under our beds?  The darkness will never let you see the light that way.  So don't let misery lead your life.  Choose to get better.  Choose to be happy, to feel sunshine on your back as you look out at life, renewed and ready.  

Don't be afraid to make those decisions that carry heavy.  Don't be afraid to feel sad, scared, alone.  These things must be endured to laugh, to conquer, and to share.  

When I was younger, I watched an interview with the legendary Bruce Lee.  Yes, that Bruce Lee.  I've always thought he was one of the coolest icons from the past, but was nonetheless surprised at something he shared with his viewers during that interview.  What he said stuck with me, and I still think of it often as it is relevant to many details in good ol' life.  He discussed how we must learn from the properties of water.  How it moves, forms, and reacts.  I found a quote that encapsulates what I heard on that re-airing so many years ago: 


"You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend." 

-Bruce Lee

Flexibility is key.  Go with the flow.   Take all you can learn from this life and seek the happiness, see the good.  There will always be pain and suffering.  There will always be evil whether it's in circumstance or hearts.  

But there will also always be good to share.  And that, fellow Twenty-Somethings, is damn refreshing.    

To My Fellow Flounderers...

I'm finding that we Twenty-Somethings are in a challenging spot.  We have learned so much already, in our lives and academic trials, but Holy Unexpected Batman, there's a ton of stuff they didn't care to warn us about!  Finances, job hunting, heartache, vehicle smarts, unabated velcro...there's so much to figure out.

Most of us who have served our college time have learned to handle our own laundry and live off of small funds and lint for a chunk of time; those lessons are now in our arsenals for the future.  Yet, when we trotted across the stage in our Hogwarts-esque robes during the graduation ceremony, we had only a glimpse of the idea of what lied ahead of us.  We are perfectly aware of this economy...very aware.  So in order to prosper we have already prepared ourselves sufficiently by learning what we can when we can...then posting it on Facebook for all our friends.  Or so we hoped.

My mantra: keep your head up.  Just don't be stupid about it and drown yourself in the rain.  You may be hitting all sorts of walls, but this is NOT the time to throw in the tear-soaked towel.  Rather, this IS the time to dance around like a fool and discover yourself.  Think about it.  When was the last time you looked inward?  For the last several years we've been so busy fretting about school, work, family, friends, our goals, etc. that we strayed a bit from our original selves.  Through all this experience we've expanded our stories and opened our eyes.  That's the sort of stuff that changes a person...and in all the right ways.  So don't be afraid to see where your life has taken you and where you really stand now.  Maybe that major you eventually graduated with isn't your calling.  So what?  You've learned plenty from it to apply those skills to what really excites you.

Everything you've accomplished and weathered contributes to who you are and what you're capable of.  Use this knowledge to your advantage.  Take on the world or just the day.  It's all your choice, so just keep swimming, fellow flounderers.