Being Antisocial At Starbucks

     The difference in atmosphere between the Starbucks I go to in Connecticut and the one I go to in Philadelphia is ridiculous. In Connecticut, I almost always see people I know or went to high school with, people go there to hang out, and it takes them all day to make a latte. In Philadelphia, there's always people sitting there but typically they're by themselves doing work. You're in and out with what you ordered in not even five minutes. The most you communicate is typically just what you want.

     I usually try to avoid Starbucks simply because it's so overpriced and I feel guilty about spending money on four-dollar lattes on a daily basis. However, I naturally gravitated to the Starbucks on Temple's campus today since I had an extra ten minutes between classes, and the Starbucks is dangerously located right next to the building where my next class was. I just couldn't resist.

     Like I said, this Starbucks is like an assembly line. As soon as I step in there, I tend to follow the same routine in my head without even realizing I'm doing it. I rush to figure out what I want, repeat it over and over in my head to make sure I don't mess up the pronunciation, tell the person taking orders, continue repeating it so I can tell the person at the register, then wait and stare at every drink that comes out up until mine is called to make sure that I can leave as soon as I can. But today, to my surprise, my pathetic little Starbucks routine was interrupted.

     The guy in front of me nonchalantly asked how I was doing and started making small talk. On the outside I acted normal, but on the inside I was thinking "Well, this is odd." My first instinct was that this guy was probably a creep because that's usually how the creepiness is initiated. I soon realized that he wasn't trying to be creepy, but was just incredibly polite. He was one of the few people I've ever witnessed in that Starbucks who had a conversation with the guy at the register instead of just barking an order at him. 

     Now, it upsets me that I reacted this way, but I feel like I'm conditioned this way. This is probably a huge overarching statement, but this is my blog, not some college paper. From what I can tell, people are typically so closed off to each other when waiting in line for coffee that it's strange if the person in line before you tries to start a conversation with you. This dude was a nice change of pace from the high-maintenance "WTF-I'm-vegan-and-you-put-whipped-cream-on-my-latte-and-my-day-is-now-ruined-because-of-you" types I see in there a lot. Maybe some people would be annoyed, but I think it's a nice gesture if somebody goes out of their way to ask how your day's been going. Nameless polite guy at Starbucks today, your kindness has not gone unnoticed.