Coffee & Dreams
My ex & I met in a coffee shop. We dreamed of opening our own coffee shop one day. We went to every independent coffee shop we could find, discussed what we liked & what we didn't, always planning what our own coffee shop would be like. I wanted to buy a huge old Victorian house. We would live upstairs. The first floor would have a coffee shop & an art gallery where I could promote other local artists in addition to selling my own photography. I now realize buying, renovating and maintaining an old Victorian home & business would have been a huge investment of both money & time. Also, I love traveling & exploring new places too much. I wouldn't have been happy in one place that long.
Of course, it never happened & maybe that's for the best. I still visit as many independent coffee shops as I can. I love that each one has its own vibe. I try to order something off the specials board. I'm always hoping they have something I've never tried before. I also love to listen to the banter of regular customers. I’m sure most people use earbuds or headphones to drown out conversations and focus on their own thing. But I'm the opposite for me the coffee shop "buzz" isn't just about caffeine. It’s also about the conversations happening around you.
If I wanted to be in my own world, I would stay home or go outside. When I go, I want to be around other people & experience the world with them in it. Don't get me wrong, I'm an introvert. I rarely start conversations with strangers. I'm usually not interacting with people & making new friends in coffee shops, but I am enjoying being around people. I might bring my laptop or a book or my journal. Sometimes I'm concentrating so much on what I'm doing, I don't hear the actual words being said. But sometimes...just sometimes, I'm pretending to read while I eavesdrop on the conversations around me.
I try to find independent coffee shops in every new place I visit. I take pictures of the places I visit, parks, museums, and cool things in the town and I love sharing those with others. But I really want to talk more about my experiences visiting different coffee shops. Not just, this is what it looked like & this is what I had but really try to convey what the experience was like. I'm hoping having my own website & blog will give me the freedom to do that and get better at it.
I try to express myself with pictures because I'm not good at describing things, especially subjective, emotional things, with words. I'm really hoping that doing this, writing about my experiences, helps me get better at expressing myself and sharing important things with others. Why? Because I read a lot about how to stay healthy & active in your later years. The studies seem to agree that an active social life helps keep you & your brain young. It helps fight cognitive decline in your later years. I've never been good at being social. Since I don't have an active social life now, I can't really expect to have one later in life. I'm just not good at connecting with people.
So, I'm trying to challenge myself to try new things. I don't do New Years Resolutions, but I do sometimes give myself a challenge for the new year and this year, 2026, I've challenged myself to start conversations with strangers. I'm hoping it's a skill you can learn, because I want to start learning how to make connections with others. I want to live a long healthy active life and according to a bunch of scientists, having a social life is a necessary piece of that puzzle. I'm not happy about it, but I'm going to try & see what happens.
