I woke up in a hotel room with the rain drops splattered and sprayed onto the glass window in the morning. All the exhaustion of travelling had caught up to me. When I woke up, it was noon. At first, I thought of throwing two sachets of instant coffee into boiling water and calling it coffee enough for me to begin writing. Then, I decided against it simply because the weather was too enticing. You rarely get to see how other cities look when drenched, and if you get a chance, you should not skip it. I hopped and skid across the moist, slippery pavement and reached the cafe. It was a short walk, and I was oddly proud of having made this decision. Then, I got my coffee from a charming barista who asked me how I was here in the city. I told her it was always some paperwork that got you out of your own. She laughed and said everyone hates paperwork. I raised my paper cup of coffee in agreement and found a table. After wasting about half an hour pondering over everything I have thought of in the last three days, I decided to write.
“Couldn’t you have written from your hotel room?” A friend might ask. Of course, I could have. I could have done a lot of things. I could have taken a flight I decided against five years ago or stayed in another city working another job like all my peers, but our lives are seldom about what we could have done. They are only about what we did and then, what that did to us. For what it’s worth, I would have missed out on the minute-long conversation with the barista had I stayed in the hotel room and stared out the window. Now, I am around people, which is always something one should try and do. Even if you do not know them, being around people is the core idea of being human. We seek the tribe—some seek to be lost, some to be found, some seek to help, some to be helped, some to lead, and some to destroy. There is no other human experience; all human experience is about belonging.
And if it is not about belonging, indeed, a good cup of coffee will get you out of bed just right. It was more than a cup of coffee today, but if it were not that way, I would take a banal reason to get out over a thousand indubitable arguments for staying in.