It’s confession time. . . again. I know I’m not alone. Or at least I hope I’m not alone. I’m often kidded about this. Hard eye rolls generally come from my husband. Snickers of humor come from my girlfriend when she overhears my order. I’ve altered trips, scoured the maps and their app to find the closest location. Yes. It’s Starbucks. To say I’m fan of drinking my grande café mocha, decaf, with caramel drizzle, and yes keep the whip cream, is the understatement of all time. I’ve had a Starbucks drink in hand nearly every day since the summer of 2000.
So, let’s not do the math on how much I’ve spent on this habit. Yes, let’s call it a habit as opposed to my previously discussed Amazon addiction. Okay, let’s do the math. Four dollars a day for twenty-two years is over $30 thousand dollars! And it’s more since I now pay six-dollars for the café mocha. It’s likely closer to $45 to $50 thousand dollars in twenty-two years when you count in pastries, the occasional day where I buy two drinks a day or purchase others’ drinks.
Should I feel bad about math? Not. At. All. It’s my happy. And don’t come asking me why I don’t just buy a Keurig or whatever latest gizmo there is to get a ‘Starbucks-like’ drink. I like a Starbucks drink not some Keurig coffee drink that supposed to taste like Starbucks. And by the way, I don’t like coffee. I like Starbucks. If you offer me a cup of coffee I will politely say ‘no thank you’.
In my early working years, Starbucks was an ‘experience’. On a number of days, it was the one place where someone said a kind word to me the whole day. Do you remember those early years in your twenties where work was hard, almost hard for no reason? Well, Starbucks offered a place where I was offered a smile, pleasant chit-chat, and a tasty drink to start my day. I met Isaiah Thomas one early visit to the Starbucks in Indianapolis as he arrived at the Fieldhouse when coaching the Indianapolis Pacers. After my second failed intrauterine insemination {IUI}, I met actress Octavia Spencer and then LA Clippers Coach Doc Rivers in the same Starbucks on the same day when visiting a Starbucks in California.
Over my twenty plus years of my habit, I have many smiles to reflect on. I’ve also collected their coffee mugs from across the US and around the world. Many I’ve purchased myself and many others were purchased for me. My children know I love my daily Starbucks drink. They’ve even mimicked me ordering my drinks in their pretend play.
Other people have their thing too. For some it’s McDonald’s French fries, others it’s a smoothie, or a candy bar, or wine. And if we think about what we’ve spent tens-of-thousands of dollars on in twenty years, we may imagine what we could have purchased with that money. Stocks, homes, vacations, or cars. However, I like to focus on what I did buy – a small space of happy in days that weren’t so happy, a great way to meet other people, a common topic to discuss at those awkward meet-and-greet events, and tremendous laughter often at my expense over what I’m proud to say is MY thing.
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