I am one year old today. That's right. I've been making coffee for people for a year now. Crazy! And I still adore my job. I know it sounds silly to like a job that doesn't pay anywhere near enough for me to live on, but I love it! Yes, there are days that I am begrudging making one more half-decaf-grande-2pump-nonfat-no-whip-extra-hot-white-chocolate-mocha... but they are only days out of the 365. I mean, I know when I've worked over 25 hours because I start to find every customer annoying. Even my regulars that I generally adore. But then I get a few days off (like I have for the next few days, THANK GOD)... and I'm back. They make fun of me for being OCD, for being a little bitchy (especially about certain things, like the hand washing sink having drinks poured down it or drinks sitting on it), for being a klutz, or for being entirely random. But honestly, I am so completely myself there and am so accepted for being just that, that I thrive.
I started to think the other day, where I would be if I hadn't taken a year off.
#1, I wouldn't have been at the coffee shop. I wouldn't have needed the health insurance and I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be some place for a few months and drop them before I left for school. There's no telling where I would have ended up on the map. Maybe Chicago, but I was seriously doubting it this time last year. Wondering if Carolina was calling my name. It wasn't. That was James Taylor singing to me.
#2, I wouldn't be living where I am... blessed with this family (my W's). I wouldn't have the smiles that the girls throw me at the most random times of the day. I wouldn't have random midnight snack runs or trips to wal-mart or the bowling alley to cheer one of us up. I wouldn't have Blu providing much needed laughter (at ourselves, the girls, ooltewah, and life). I wouldn't have all the little things that make this such a wonderful home. I can't imagine life right now any other way.
#3, I wouldn't have the close relationships I do with the people I do. Not only am I talking about the W's... but all my coffee crew. I have simply adored L from the get go. Once we started having dates and bonding over coffee and God, I knew we were at the same store for a reason. I have LOVED watching her pregnancy and cannot wait to be there with her for the birth in about a month. I think it is about 5 times cooler than being a bridesmaid (no offense to my brides!!). And even beyond the people that I've MET in my year off... I have adored getting closer to the people I already knew. My college friends that stuck around town. I wouldn't trade our panera, two squares, tattoos, chattz, car time for the world. I'm going to miss it insanely much when I'm gone.
After all this... and knowing how much I'll miss it when I'm north in the frigid cold, I am comforted by the knowledge that I'm in God's hands. Seriously. It sounds completely cheesy. I get that. What I mean is that I know God knew I needed a year off. He knew I would meet these people and grow and learn in ways I couldn't anywhere else. He made it happen. The coffee job. The W's. The relationships. All of it. So... I have to trust that he has similarly magical plans in the windy northern city for me, too. People to meet. Ways to grow. A particular roommate or teacher. What have you. So there's that. I am focusing on that.
"Ain't no doubt in no one's mind that love's the finest thing around." -JT
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