Starbucks: How It's More Than PSL Drinks And Red Cups To Me

Yes, the red cups are here. 

Just like the return of the Pumpkin Spice Latte (PSL) marks the start of Fall for many people across the world, the red cup let's us know that the holidays are not far from us. But this post isn't all about how excited I am to be drinking from my first red cup of the season at this very moment. Nope. To me, Starbucks has become more than "basic" jokes and cool Instagram posts of my drinks.

It wasn't until college that I started to get into Starbucks and actually be able to afford to indulge in it from time to time. My senior year, I started to have coffee dates.

I also was now working in the President's Office at Emporia State University. I worked a Monday shift with a student I hadn't met before until working in the office. He was a few years older than me, married, and had spent time working in the Navy before his time at ESU. One Monday, he was going to the Union to get a Starbucks drink and offered to get me one too. Little did I know, this would be a weekly tradition we would later dub, "Coffee Monday."

Every Monday, during our shift he would grab us coffee and we would work, job search, talk about class, and anything else in between. We would look over each other's resumes that we were constantly tweaking and he would offer advice about a boy I had been seeing. It was a nice little treat to look forward to every Monday. I even got to have coffee at our Emporia Starbucks with him and his wife one time and was able to enjoy each other's company.

Since graduating, I am now in Kansas City and him and his wife are living in Colorado. We have been able to keep in touch and he has continued to be a great friend and a cheerleader. Last month, on a Sunday, I asked for his email and through the Starbucks website, I was able to send him a Starbucks e-gift card and told him we would have a virtual coffee Monday the next day. That Monday, I went to Starbucks over my lunch break and sent him a picture of it over Snapchat and he did the same.

I've been thankful for Starbucks which helped build a friendship and also gives us the capabilities to keep a little tradition going despite the distance. 

Starbucks has also become a happy place for me. After graduating from college, I moved back home and was soon training to compete in Miss Kansas USA and also enduring that hard job search as a recent college grad. I was transitioning from living the college life for the last four years, going through the funk of a relationship gone wrong, and the break up that came.

A new Starbucks opened close to home so I started to go there and use it as an office because I couldn't be in my bed all the time. I would order my drink and park at a table for hours. During my time there, I was working on fundraising efforts for the pageant, job applications, networking, and writing.

Pageant work, job searching, writing. Repeat. 

While I was unemployed, I didn't want to be stagnant. The pageant helped me personally work on myself in many ways and I wanted to focus on my blog and get my writing seen. Blog posts and articles were born, written, and sent in when I was at Starbucks. Poems were revised and tweaked. It was my time to be in the zone alone and get things done.

After a while, a couple baristas knew me by name and knew my order all the way down to the "no whip cream" when I wanted it on ice. I appreciated their friendly nature every time I chose to come in and be there for hours.

Eventually I got my first big girl job and life has taken off even faster. My Starbucks afternoons became nonexistent. This week, I am in between ending my first job last week and starting my new one next week. I scheduled a whole afternoon today to come to the Starbucks down the road from my apartment and dedicate it to my blog work.

This time I am not competing in a pageant. I'll be starting a new job next week. All I need to do is write and work on my blog. (And be excited to spend the weekend with someone I like ;) ) While my life has changed a lot over the last year, I still get the excited feeling to be here.

Thank you, Starbucks for helping me get through stressful days, being a comfort, a happy place, somewhere I can work, and spend time with my passion. Your yummy drinks delight my taste buds and make my tummy happy.

A loyal customer & gold card member,

*This post was not sponsored. It is strictly my own opinion.