Starbucks chats

Next to my university there’s a Starbucks. Now, if there’s one thing that’s insanely insensible for a student it’s to go to Starbucks. No matter how sophisticated you look sitting there with a laptop and a big cup of coffee, it does not outweigh the fact that for the rest of the week you are probably now forced to eat plain pasta. Still, I love going there and seeing as how I am generally incapable of making sensible decisions I do end up indulging quite a lot.

Obviously one of the reasons for going there is the coffee. I know that people say that it’s all about the brand and that the coffee still sucks, but honestly there’s little that makes me as happy as trying out new flavours of insanely sugary caffeinated drinks. There’s one more important reason however for why I can’t stay away for any extended period of time and that’s the therapeutic effect of it. I don’t know whether it’s the general atmosphere or the effect of caffeine on my brain but there are few places where I’ve had such honest conversations as in a Starbucks.

Probably it’s the air of pretentiousness but no matter the cause it always triggers amazing chats with my friends, which is why I am always up for a big gulp of warm goodness when there’s an issue that needs to be covered. Whenever I have something on my mind myself or I know that a friend is going through something, a trip to Starbucks is all we need to end up chatting about all deep philosophical and emotional stuff that’s going on; whether that’s genuine heartache or just superficial first world problems.

Over time we have covered childhood trauma’s as well as break ups and school drama and I always end up feeling so much better afterwards. It’s hard for me to talk about the more difficult things in life, so anything that helps me open up a bit is a huge win. Basically, if that means I need to pay €5,- for a simple coffee then so be it.