Stuff I learnt from Coffee.

recently while looking through some of my old writing, I found an essay I wrote for some college applications. I remember writing it from a perspective of what colleges want to see in an applicant; someone curious but not jaded, smart enough to say that the system is screwed up in some ways but not courageous enough to try and do something about it; someone who can generally pretend to be happy about life in a naive 16 year old kind of way. Or maybe that is how most 16 year olds are and I was just weird. Anyway, this essay was funny and refreshing in a nostalgic way to me so hope you have fun reading it too. 

 My Experiences with Coffee

I had always known about coffee- it often incited my curiosity but was relegated to the class of “old people drinks” at that time, far from my reach. One day when some guests were around, I was finally allowed to have this mystical drink. I decided to have some black coffee – which only the cool people had. As I absorbed the cup’s heat and aroma, and slowly blew over it to cool it down, I was excited to finally join the ranks of the old people. But after just one sip, I almost spit it out. I sputtered like a battered car on the first day of winter. In the moments that followed the transcendental irony of the human condition became clear to me and now, I am able to share my learnings with mere mortals.

The very first thing I learnt from coffee was that there is always something to learn from and about everything. No matter how boring we think something is, or how much we think we know about it, we never know it fully. How could coffee itself hide its bitter taste behind this façade of aesthetics? And what does that say about the grown-ups, who we think we know, yet they peddle this unthinkable conspiracy to new children? Past the atrocities committed by the adults, what I actually learnt was that humans and the world they inhabit is extremely complex, and no one really has it figured out. This fact is the origin of unending curiosity but also the rabbit hole of epistemic nihilism. To not be jaded we must constantly keep striving to learn.

I’ve admired how different milk concentrations and foam levels lead to totally different coffee types offering totally different experiences. This is analogous to how I’ve always encountered problems which combined relatively easy concepts into unthinkably intricate solutions. The whole is often greater than the sum of its parts. It also taught me how we are not too different in our constitutions, yet the different experiences and the ways in which they are mixed lead to such a wide variety of cultures.

The next lesson I learnt from coffee, after many a brain-freeze and burnt tongue was how we often need to take things slow. Most coffee shops sell their experience and not the coffee itself. When we feel that life is going by way too fast, we must remember that we are still living out one of our 3 billion seconds on earth continuously. Whenever you feel overwhelmed, you should take a deep breath and remember you can have the foam on top if you’re bored of the coffee.

Coffee also teaches us the value of dedication. To make the coffee, you sometimes just have to grind a bit. Homemade coffee is one of the most sincere expressions of oneself: if you wanted to grab some better coffee than what you could make, you could just buy it at a coffee shop and that would be less effort, but that’s not you. You will not necessarily be the absolute best at something you are passionate about, but if you dedicate yourself to it fully, what comes out the other end is something that is appreciable.

But of course, even coffee has a Dark side. Like how I continued to have coffee even after that first experience, it is indicative how we don’t disregard bad experiences, rather unstimulating ones. As a society we are ready to live in a state of lower consciousness as dependent on our dopamine, only chasing those temporary highs. In my experience, coffee has been an excuse and a saviour for many a terrible sleeping habit and late-night cramming. One enjoys stimulating experiences, only insofar as we choose those consciously and are not slaves to it, which is rather difficult.

The first time I saw a coffee plant, with its vibrant red beans, I couldn’t believe that it became that brown and mundane. It taught me how much people change over the course of their lives and also why we should try to understand their struggles. (As an indian, write about diversity --). The best kind of people can be made by the hardest of material conditions during their childhood just like the best kind of coffee can come out the nether end of a civet’s digestive system!

But the most important lesson I learnt from coffee was that I could no longer continue to be the kid who overloads their coffee with sugar. The time had come to grow up and take a swig of that bitter yet delectable taste and have my own genuine experience. I would love to have a cup of coffee with the people at ________.