I already told you that I'm busy. Therefore, I spend a lot of time waiting in line for coffee, and Starbucks happens to be my poison of choice. As I rounded the corner, I glanced into the familiar window, and I was surprised to see the chairs perched on the tables. Almost as though it were closing time. Having slightly lost my bearings, I dug for my phone and hurried to check the time. It was 6:30 p.m. Why on earth would the chairs be on the tables? They didn't close until 9 p.m. On my way in, I consulted the plaque next to the door that displayed store hours. Sure enough, the store closed at 9 p.m. I flung the door open, half expecting to hear that the blenders were down, or they were out of stock, accompanied by some half-hearted apology. I remained composed as I crossed the threshold into the store. All of the other customers were seated, so I looked directly at the smiling barista. She extended a traditional greeting- "Hi, how are you today?". Something in my face must have betrayed my surprise. A second barista, who just seconds before was restocking the pastry display, raised her eyebrows and said, "Cleaning. We're just cleaning. Calm down." She then resumed organizing the scones.
I did not understand the gravity of her statement at first. I didn't really even acknowledge it. I just walked right to the cashier and stated my order. I strolled over to the bar to wait for the coffee, and while I was staring at my phone pretending to be busy, it hit me. Another person had just told me to calm down. Not just any person though. A total stranger. Someone who has never met me. My friends tell me to calm down all the time. They know when I'm actually worked up and when I'm just being dramatic. Add to that fact that this particular stranger was a Starbucks barista, one of the most stressful occupations on the planet. She has throngs of impatient people in front of her every day. I'd like to know how many of them she has actually told to calm down.
My first reaction was slightly miffed. Then I started reasoning with her comment. I had a slight panic attack because Starbucks appeared to closed. In the grand scheme of things, that meant that I would have had to get back into my car and drive the extra five minutes that it would have taken me to get to the next Starbucks. See, that just makes me sound pathetic. After more reflection, I realized why I had gotten so worked up: I had lost control of the situation.
When you lead a busy life, you get really good at time management. You develop a schedule. You figure out ways to squeeze the most out of your days. If a store, like Starbucks, is a part of that routine, you memorize the schedule. You make it work, but in order to do so, you have to possess an extreme amount of control over not just yourself and your own personal schedule, but over your environment as well. We place a lot of value in our routines, and how well they are adhered to. We take pride in constructing our busy schedules because it's nice to be needed in so many places. The problem is that we revolve our lives around these schedules, when these schedules should revolve around our lives. You lose sight of what's truly important in life, and you live to make it from one meeting to the next. It's great to have a busy schedule, and control so many aspects of your life. You just have to remember that there are going to be occasions that you have no control. And you have to be okay with it. Spontaneity can be fun, and it's sad that it's become such a lost art. But that particular evening, I walked out of that Starbucks thankful to have regained control of the situation. Now, more than ever, I knew that even when you've lost control of your schedule, your environment and your routines, you can't give up.
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