A neverending love affair

I have been in love for 15 years. The object of my affection happens to be coffee.

It began when I was 16. Like many kids my age, the whole world changed for me when I got my driver's license. Growing up in the country surrounded by cornfields limits your sphere of knowledge, so having a car changed everything. One of my first discoveries was a wonderful new addition to the city I went to school in...it was a coffee shop, the first one in my city. It soon became my hangout of choice.

It escalated from there. Soon I was traveling to other cities' coffee shops. It wasn't just the coffee (because at this point all I could drink were super-sweet mochas), but the whole atmosphere and culture of the coffee world. It ensared me, and I dreamed of being a barista.

Well, life happened and things got pushed aside for what seemed more important at the time, such as having a decent full-time job, and later going to college. I never stopped loving coffee throughout all that, and I still frequented cafes almost daily, but the dream of being a barista seemed more like a foolish daydream.

Then everything changed in 2005. After a life-changing event, I was in the market for a 2nd job to help support myself in a world where I was now solely responsible for my well being. And it just so happened that a brand new cafe was poised to open across the street from my full-time job. I had no actual experience in the coffee world at that point, other than being a faithful drinker for a decade. So I applied.

I honestly did not expect to get hired having no experience, so I was surprised when I was called for an interview. I figured I had nothing to lose, so I was completely upfront about my intentions.

"I don't really need this job, but I love coffee. I want to know more about it, and I've always wanted to be a barista." It was that sentence that landed me the job. So finally, after a decade of hoping, I was a barista, and it was even better than I had hoped it would be.

The cafe I worked at did it right. I was trained to know everything about coffee. Growing regions, processing, roasting levels, taste profiles, technique. I was extremely fortunate to be working in a cafe that happened to use Intelligentsia coffee, arguably one of the best coffee companies in America. I was trained by actual Intelligentsia barista trainers, and I was able to travel to their HQ in Chicago and receive even more hands-on training.

I excelled in my skills, and looked forward to every single shift I had. Sadly though, the cafe fell on hard times. After 2 years, I was looking for a new cafe job. Three months later I had found it working for Milwaukee's very own Alterra, which just so happens to be another of the very top coffee companies in the country.

I love working there. I love being a barista. I think many people wander through life trying to find that one thing that drives them, the thing that they are passionate about. I feel so lucky to have found it. No, it's not glamorous or high-paying (not yet, at least). It pains me that I must keep it a part-time job, because all I want to do is work there. I hope that my life path will someday take me to a place where I can call the coffee industry my profession.