No Starbucks
What I learned about myself my first day in Las Vegas, NM --
I have never thought of myself as a “consumer”. I grew up on a farm in Corrales, and spent my childhood raising sheep. Even when I lived in Albuquerque and Berkeley, I clung to my farm girl roots and prided myself on how I wouldn’t be swayed by main stream society. Today, however, I realized how reliant I have become on creature comforts.
After my first morning of clinic, I was faced with a completely free afternoon in a small New Mexico town. Eager to kill some time and avoid my tiny dorm room, I decided to head over to the local Starbucks and set up shop with my laptop to work on learning issues. To my surprise, when I visited the Starbucks webpage and searched for locations in town, there were none to be found. The closest Starbucks coffee shop is 60 miles away in Santa Fe. Is that even possible, I wondered? Did I really just move to a part of the world that doesn’t have a Starbucks? My gut reaction was brief panic. Where am I going to get a latte? What am I going to do when I need to get out of my dorm room? I pondered that for a brief moment, then I did a double take. Had I been indoctrinated into the Starbucks cult without even realizing it? When did that happen?
Apparently living in high population areas like Albuquerque and Berkeley has spoiled me. I take it for granted that lattes and department stores will always be at my fingertips, and I’ve let society creep in and convince me they are necessary for daily living. As a result, moving to Small Town, New Mexico has been shocking for the most unexpected reasons. I was expecting poverty; I was expecting geographic isolation; and I was expecting limited medical resources. I was not expecting, however, to feel cut off from the world simply because there is not a Starbucks in town.
I have never thought of myself as a “consumer”. I grew up on a farm in Corrales, and spent my childhood raising sheep. Even when I lived in Albuquerque and Berkeley, I clung to my farm girl roots and prided myself on how I wouldn’t be swayed by main stream society. Today, however, I realized how reliant I have become on creature comforts.
After my first morning of clinic, I was faced with a completely free afternoon in a small New Mexico town. Eager to kill some time and avoid my tiny dorm room, I decided to head over to the local Starbucks and set up shop with my laptop to work on learning issues. To my surprise, when I visited the Starbucks webpage and searched for locations in town, there were none to be found. The closest Starbucks coffee shop is 60 miles away in Santa Fe. Is that even possible, I wondered? Did I really just move to a part of the world that doesn’t have a Starbucks? My gut reaction was brief panic. Where am I going to get a latte? What am I going to do when I need to get out of my dorm room? I pondered that for a brief moment, then I did a double take. Had I been indoctrinated into the Starbucks cult without even realizing it? When did that happen?
Apparently living in high population areas like Albuquerque and Berkeley has spoiled me. I take it for granted that lattes and department stores will always be at my fingertips, and I’ve let society creep in and convince me they are necessary for daily living. As a result, moving to Small Town, New Mexico has been shocking for the most unexpected reasons. I was expecting poverty; I was expecting geographic isolation; and I was expecting limited medical resources. I was not expecting, however, to feel cut off from the world simply because there is not a Starbucks in town.
posted by Samara at
11:42 AM
1 Comments:
i know there's at least one coffee shop in las vegas nm (or, at least, used to be...maybe 5 years ago...) - thought it was on that main downtown street, not far from a dedicated candy shop? am i making both of those up?
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