Grab life by the beans

I love it when the coffee kicks in and I realize what an adorable badass I am going to be today. Coffee break or learning break, however you may want to term it, for me taking a coffee break at work is very important, not because it gives me some time-off from my regular activities but because it introduces me to different kind of people, their ideas and their motivation or way of thinking. However simple and trivial it may sound, but their is so much knowledge around you. Now it depends on you if you want to absorb it or simply ignore it, because either you are already occupied with something or you are not ready to digest it and invest more time into it.

Conversations can be about anything, whether it is about the hot stocks in the market, weekend plans, different wine pairings or a hot new technology in the market. Each and every statement made by anyone invokes your thought process. Few may learn new things and for few it might be something on which they have lot many inputs. I remember once when someone was talking about investments and cryptocurrency, they expected that I might not know anything about it. But, expect the unexpected, being a curious and an inquisitive head, I engaged in the conversation by giving my inputs on Ethereum and the importance of smart contracts. I got a sudden response stating that we are talking about blockchain which aggravated my thoughts to speak more and I again replied stating that yes everything is blockchain when it comes to cryptocurrency world, but my comment is a step ahead to blockchain. Suddenly everyone became so much interested that apart from talking about wines and the right grape, I am also a connoisseur of emerging technology. I wanted to tell them much more about me and my knowledge but I was not able to because I did not want them to feel intimidated by my knowledge. I did not want them to shy away from me while discussing about any topic.

My colleagues are very simple, look very normal and are way different from me and my background. But they are extraordinary in their own way because they are contented with whatever they have. Their contented nature makes them special and the happiest people. The more I know about them, the more I understand that life is all about being happy and contended. They take pleasure in small discussions while so many people in this world are dealing with really big problems. For them the biggest problem for the day might be where to take their family on a weekend or which movie to watch over the weekend. Most of the time I am lost in my own thoughts because there might be a thousand neurons running in my head each grabbing its own share of coffee. Then suddenly one of my colleague will ask me about what I did over the weekend and he might expect that I will say something very interesting because I might look like as if I host celebrity dinners at my place every weekend. I am amazed by the innocence of these people and how life has kept them away from some difficult and nasty real world problems. Sometimes I wonder how they manage to be so centered all the time, but then I realize that they remain focused because they want to take one thing at a time and go with the flow. They don’t want to run against the wind and carve their way out.

On one Friday at work, I was asked about my weekend plans and I said casually that I had nothing planned except going to a wine bar and chat over wine. They were so amused by my way of expressing that they started calling me “Wine Queen”. When they called me wine queen I smiled and the only thing that came to my mind was: accept what life offers to you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle.. But get drunk. Just my way of dealing with difficult situations of life.

One more interesting conversation happened while sipping coffee one day when we discussed about the way people are getting evolved and their interests are changing which later led to the kind of fashion sense people follow nowadays. And then I heard someone praising me by saying “fashionista” which caught my attention to their topic. All I had to say to them was that there is no harm in dressing up for the day when it makes you feel confident and kick-start your day with a positive energy around you. Now when I compare these people to the kind of people I was working with previously, I can only feel grateful about my decision to take a step forward and explore my options outside previous organization. These people are full of energy with positive vibes and don’t demean anybody. They treat everybody equally and would always accept anyone with a warm welcome. Their positive behavior and decent attitude makes me realize that all of them came from very good backgrounds and all of them have had really good upbringing.

Never underestimate the importance of being properly caffeinated.

Like you can never underestimate the importance of being properly caffeinated, same way you can never underestimate the impact of positive energy, strength and attitude towards you in life. I would give a trillion thanks to the coffee and these interesting conversations which made me realize the nitty gritty details of life which were often missed while juggling for the best.

Love, Payal