The Pryz Starbucks

Like any student, I’ve procrastinated my way right up to the deadline of enough essays to have a good feeling when it's going to happen again. My most recent excuse for not having started writing is that I can’t seem to find the location to work. My dorm desk is too cluttered to let me concentrate. It’s too cold to walk to the library. But I promised myself I would get a good start this morning, so I eye my new location: the little round booth table in the very back corner of the Pryzbyla Center Starbucks. Dozens of students procrastinate work there every day, trading the table every couple of hours as class periods shift. Set back in the corner, it seems to be attempting to hide from the 9:30 am bustle, though I’m not sure how successfully. I eye the long line of students waiting to order coffee with serious doubts about my ability to focus here, but caffeine with a side of productivity sounds like just what I need. Besides, with the sunlight faintly filtering in through the window blinds, the table feels welcoming to my productivity (or, at the very least, encouraging of it). So, I plop my bag down on the seat, saving it, and join the line for coffee.

I sit down with my laptop in front of me, a recently purchased ToastedWhiteChocolateMochaWithOatmilkAndNoWhip resting just behind it. My weekly planner is folded open, and tomorrow's date is filled with assignments printed in black ink. I eye the essay for a second before running my finger along the page, landing instead on a reading. Might as well knock that off before starting the essay, right? Easy. I pull the PDF pages up on my laptop and begin to scan them over, until eventually I’m engrossed in the narrative. I can hear my professor's lessons on pathetic fallacy at the back of my mind as the author describes a landscape. I should probably make a note about—Then I hear my name being called, and glance up to see my friend walking into the Starbucks. Yanked away from pathetic fallacy and the idea of jotting down my thoughts, I wave. My friend changes his course of direction to say good morning, and we quickly talk about busy days and needing caffeine before he leaves to get in line for a cup. 

I look back down at my laptop, struggling for a moment to find out where I left off reading and why I brought out my pad of Post-it Notes. Squinting at the screen, I think I find the spot but then I catch the motion of a wave, and a few classmates gesture hello. 

I wonder if they started working on that essay… 

I put my head down, and scrawl down a few notes about the reading.

 How many pages are left in this?

Another person walks in, another hello. Soon the table next to me and the other in front of me are filled, and the conversations happening there start to melt into my own thoughts. I have to believe that the words I’m reading are being spoken to me in order to concentrate. Finally, I put in earbuds. While a part of me is enjoying the gentle thrum of energy in the Starbucks, it is just a little too much more entertaining than my schoolwork. I need to change up the rhythm of it, perhaps make it a bit more calm. I queue up the Eagles and some Fleetwood Mac, and, gently, I feel the world slow its pace. Everyone seems to walk to the beat of the music flowing into my ears. The crowd appears to be a bit more relaxed, like the rush has ended. Then I look back down at my computer screen and realize I haven’t really processed a single word I’ve read. But I read it again, steadier, because now the words are flowing with a peaceful easy feeling (2013 remaster). I get down to the bottom of the page and scroll a bit further, when I watch a text pop up into the corner of my screen. 

Look up. Look up? 

I look up to see my roommate heading in my direction, a smirk spreading across her face. I smile back as she sits down in the chair across from me, and angle down the screen of my laptop just slightly so she has enough room at the table. I pull out an earbud and we get to talking. Then both earbuds are placed on the table in front of me, and all work is abandoned.

About an hour or so later my roommate gets up to leave for class. I bid her goodbye, then open my laptop. Where was I?

February 2022