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Coffee Break

Before the end of the second semester of my freshman year in college, I had the chance to observe the possibilities that exist in coffee shops. I spent my nights reading away the hours inside Coffee Bean (located along the streets of Katipunan), while I sit beside my roommates, who are doing the same thing as I am. There are moments when my mind wanders off from the pages of my notebook. However, it does not wander far from the corners of the coffee shop.

The coffee shop: a place of endless possibilities. Sometimes I’d like to think to myself that at any moment, my soul mate might find me in a coffee shop. I’m sitting by myself. He enters the room and our eyes meet at the same time. We both give each other an unnoticeable smile. And the rest is history.

However, as cheesy and cliché as the mentioned scenario may seem, my feet are still glued to the ground of reality. In a sea of strangers, the coffee shop can be a lonesome place. I’m seated in my own little corner like the rest of the worlds sitting in front of their laptops and books, minding their own businesses. The closest connections I have with these worlds are two-second glances—nothing more than that. It’s a fascinating yet sad fact of coffee shops; people surround you and yet none of them dares disturb the invincible walls from which you are hiding behind.

Every now and then, I believe in the possibilities of finding fate in a coffee shop. During my freshman second semester, my roommate went home with red cheeks and a huge smile on her face. While studying in Coffee Bean, she had rediscovered her first college-crush, whom she figured was studying in the Ateneo Law School. Ironically, he had slipped her mind after two years before he resurfaced once again. After that night, she had willed herself to visit Coffee Bean, with the hope of being inspired by his presence. There were nights that dismayed her. But, there were nights that she had also attempted to free herself from her...