Coffee Date by Sam Folks
Since I’ll be away in Toronto for a whirlwind 2-day trip, I asked two lovely ladies to step in and share some of their wonderful writing with you all. Today I bring you the lovely Hannah Katy from As Simple As That, one of my newer blog friends, but somebody I’m so glad I found. Hannah’s writing is beautiful, moving and thought-provoking, and she definitely provoked some thought in me with this one! I hope you enjoy her writing as much as I do. I’ll be back next week post-trip and post-Valentine’s day, and there shall definitely be a debriefing then 
When Miss Emily Jane first asked me to be a guest blogger I was absolutely honored. My mind started spinning with potential posts that would do her blog justice but my mind kept coming back to one recurring thought: Emily and I would undoubtedly have an outstanding time if we ever sat down over a cup of coffee.
I love nothing more than the sharing of stories with a freshly brewed cup of French Vanilla sitting between my hands. Perhaps it’s the steam, or maybe the environment; something about coffee dates has always been magical to me. An enchanted ingredient, outside of the cup, has always propelled me to believe that all of life’s problems can be solved in between a few delicate sips.
Confession time: I am a coffee date addict. My planner is filled with little drawings of coffee mugs with a different name scribbled on the inside of each cup. Each little cup, doodled from Sunday to Saturday, represent a different coffee date I have made with someone. I average a good four or five a week. Sometimes in a newly discovered coffee shop, other times in good ol’ Starbucks. Sometimes with old friends, other times with complete strangers.
I know you are probably asking, why does this girl ask complete strangers to have a cup of coffee with her? Call me crazy, but I believe I am onto something.
Our lives are so busy, sometimes there are days when we swear we never found the chance to look up from that pile of papers on our desk or finish thumbing through those millions of emails sitting restless in our inbox. We can very easily get into a habit of shutting the world out, or potentially worse, shutting out anyone who is not already a supporting actor/actress in the movie that is our own life.
We have our friends, our family and our significant others. We have the coworkers and the fellow bloggers, the professors and the clients. What about the strangers? The people we don’t know yet.
Do we set out a sign outside our hearts that reads “No Vacancy”? Do we turn away people who could potentially fit quite nicely in our heart or leave us wondering what our life would be without them?
Enter my never-ending series of coffee dates. These coffee dates have shifted my perspective on life and have sculpted my purpose here on earth. They have taught me a simple truth that I hold dear to me: Every person we encounter in this life serves a purpose, either as one whom we learn from or one whom we teach. Every individual has a stunning story to tell, a moral for us to hear; I genuinely believe some people come into our lives because we were meant to tell them our story.
We cannot be so sure that that friend who grew up knowing our favorite snack food or that love who knows the way we position our pillow at night will be able to teach us everything we need to know in this lifetime. We might just be destined to learn from a perfect stranger. So that is why I make room in my life for a great hobby called “coffee dating”. Because I am depending on these coffee dates to serve their purpose, to leave me being a different person from when I took that first sip, to drop a pearl of wisdom into my cup as I listen to the story of someone else.
Perhaps one day Emily and I will Skype over a cup of coffee, or maybe you and I can chat over a cappuccino, but I am leaving it up to you now. Is there someone you have come across and you are intrigued to hear his or her story? If so, why haven’t you asked them out for coffee yet?
