Defining Moments: Coffee, Coffee, Coffee

Tonight after making a somewhat embarrassing attempt to lead the Vacation Bible School theme song, I sat down near Patrick for the rest of opening celebration. During the missions video, after an image of a cup of coffee appeared, this conversation occurred:

Me: “Oh that looks good. I just realized that I haven’t had any caffeine today.”
Patrick, laughing: “I drank an entire pot of coffee by myself this morning.”
Me, taking in that information: “Wait. I’ve actually only had water.”
Patrick: “Wow. That’s impressive.”
Me: “I didn’t mean to!”
And then we both laughed.

Growing up, I always wanted to drink coffee. Coffee commercials made coffee look so good, and the smell of coffee was so appealing. And yet, I just didn’t like it. Even after going to coffee shops with my big sister in college, I still hadn’t acquired a taste for sophisticated liquid energy. I always went for orange soda or hot chocolate while inwardly wishing that I liked coffee.

Then I met Kyle.

Kyle was one of my youth when I was a youth minister a decade ago. When he was in high school, Kyle had this dream of opening a coffee shop. While the details are hazy now, I remember him talking about his coffee shop a lot and I remember thinking that I hoped he accomplished his goal because I could tell it would make him happy.

The second summer I took my youth to summer camp, Kyle couldn’t attend with us because he was North Carolina Governor’s School East. During free time one day, in Kyle’s honor, I decided to buy myself a frozen coffee drink at the coffee shop at Ridgecrest. Much to my surprise, I liked it.

And therein started my beginning in the delightful world of coffee.

Very slowly, I have moved from frozen coffee drinks to iced coffee to hot coffee—from drinks with only a hint of coffee to straight up coffee with only cream and sugar—I’m still not able to do black. Today, mostly because I’m very bad at drinking hot beverages—almost as bad as I am at leading choreography—I still prefer iced or frozen coffee—I don’t have to worry about burning my tongue—but I can drink light, medium, or dark roasts with or without flavoring.

I can now see coffee commercials and smell coffee brewing and sit with friends at coffee shops and be fully content. In fact, I cannot count the number of times that I have shared coffee with friends and family members since the day that I took that leap of coffee faith in honor of Kyle. Had I not chosen to try that drink that day, then I may have missed some of the best conversations of my life.

Thanks, Kyle, for being an all around great person and coffee ambassador. And thank you for unknowingly giving me one of the defining moments of my life.