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English 304 - Feature Article
Mar. 2nd, 2008 03:54 pmI found a copy of my Feature Article I had to write for my Advanced Composition class in my last year at UBC and thought I would share it. I don't know if this is the final edited copy, since I found it on Facebook (where I posted it to my two classmates for comments), but it won't have changed much. It's the only piece of writing for that class I have. I deleted everything before I came to Japan and only have hard copies which are stashed away in boxes in my parent's basement. Enjoy! Bonus points for anyone who can guess the analogy of the title.
A Life Measured in Coffee Spoons
by Heather McCaw, March 2007
Imagine this: your fingers trudge across the keyboard, your eyes glare at an HP Pavilion laptop screen, forcing out another 573 words capped with a half-hearted sentence than can vaguely be called a conclusion; miles from caring, you hit Print and throw on a slightly less wrinkled t-shirt. The first impulse in your body, before you even comprehend fighting with the senior citizens on their grocery run for a seat on the 99 B-Line is vital: Coffee. Now.
As a university student, this scenario is all-too familiar. Rounding the end of November and March, being awake for days on end with the aid of that liquid gold is inevitable. It is hard to find Vancouverites who don’t know where “Two Starbucks Corner” is on Robson Street. I have relinquished almost all ties to Brampton, Ontario since moving to this rain puddle four years ago – except my love of Tim Horton’s. Give me a choice between a jacked-up flavoured latte and a simple double-double, and the double-double remains undefeated.
When I get a Homer Simpson-esque dreamy face at the mention of Tim Horton’s, people tell me it’s “Ontario thing”. It’s true. As in Vancouver with Starbucks, it goes unnoticed in Brampton when there is a stand-alone Tim’s, an outlet in the gas station, as well as one in the food court at the mall all on the same block. Perhaps it’s because Vancouver is only a day trip from Seattle, the home of the white cup, while Tim’s native Hamilton is in the armpit of southern Ontario. Starbucks, like their white cups, litters 7102 stores around the world; Tim has 2710 outlets in Canada, 336 in the States, and 1 in Khandahar, Afghanistan.
It took me a while to adjust to the change: you can hardly walk three city blocks without tripping over a Starbucks (as of last year, UBC has four). I could count the number of Timmy Ho’s I knew of on one hand. Given the dependence us university students have on our caffeinated beverages, Starbucks became a second home and homework spot. Generally, Starbucks caters to a certain (stereo)type: the yoga moms with the SUV strollers, the high school twelve-year-olds who spend so much of daddy’s money trying to look scrappy in their TNA and Lululemon hoodies, and the six-figure Yaletown loft apartment business men; one almost feels like they need to dress up just to run to the corner for their cup of morning brew. On the other hand, the Timmy’s of suburban Ontario is the local hangout for the school kids, since there is nothing else open after ten o’clock, and where no one gives you the once-over if you come in wearing your boyfriend’s ten-year-old sweatpants rolled up to the knee on a muggy July morning.
After having worked in the coffee industry for a number of years, I have grown to appreciate (and prefer) the simplicity of Tim Horton’s over Starbucks. There is nothing more irritating when you are running late after pulling an all-nighter to write that final term paper and cat-napping a little too long only to stand in line at the corner coffee shop, waiting to order your double, one-percent, extra-hot mocha with whipped cream. Chances have it, the twenty-something office assistant ahead of you decides to today will be the day she will try something different and spends a precious five minutes studying the menu board. At trusty Tim’s, there are three different options: coffee, tea, or hot chocolate, and only two of which are open for modification. A typical 8 a.m. coffee rush consists of delivery van drivers and the elderly (the office workers use the drive-thru) who order the same thing religiously; Queenie, the seasoned team member at the counter processes the line in record time, smiling knowingly as she hands you The Usual.
Now, I’m not saying that double, one-percent, extra-hot mochas with whipped cream are bad; quite the opposite, they are a delicious treat. They are so much a treat, that for one mocha you could get three double-doubles. For the starving university student, money is everything. After three years of rumors, a Tim Horton’s outlet opened at UBC last September: at ten-minutes-to and ten-after the hour, there is a line out the door. The 24-hr Timmy’s that opened during the summer in Kitsilano had to enforce a thirty-minute seating policy because they were being overrun by students in need of that late night caffeine fix during exam season.
Luckily for people like me, Tim Horton’s is starting to get a foothold in Vancouver with a new store opening up in Dunbar in the near future. I am also a proud Starbucks Duetto Visa card holder; some might call me a corporate sell-out. It serves a higher purpose however: I get my fix of double-double delight paid with my Visa which gives me Starbucks dollars to get my mocha treat every so often. My system is pure gold.
A Life Measured in Coffee Spoons
by Heather McCaw, March 2007
Imagine this: your fingers trudge across the keyboard, your eyes glare at an HP Pavilion laptop screen, forcing out another 573 words capped with a half-hearted sentence than can vaguely be called a conclusion; miles from caring, you hit Print and throw on a slightly less wrinkled t-shirt. The first impulse in your body, before you even comprehend fighting with the senior citizens on their grocery run for a seat on the 99 B-Line is vital: Coffee. Now.
As a university student, this scenario is all-too familiar. Rounding the end of November and March, being awake for days on end with the aid of that liquid gold is inevitable. It is hard to find Vancouverites who don’t know where “Two Starbucks Corner” is on Robson Street. I have relinquished almost all ties to Brampton, Ontario since moving to this rain puddle four years ago – except my love of Tim Horton’s. Give me a choice between a jacked-up flavoured latte and a simple double-double, and the double-double remains undefeated.
When I get a Homer Simpson-esque dreamy face at the mention of Tim Horton’s, people tell me it’s “Ontario thing”. It’s true. As in Vancouver with Starbucks, it goes unnoticed in Brampton when there is a stand-alone Tim’s, an outlet in the gas station, as well as one in the food court at the mall all on the same block. Perhaps it’s because Vancouver is only a day trip from Seattle, the home of the white cup, while Tim’s native Hamilton is in the armpit of southern Ontario. Starbucks, like their white cups, litters 7102 stores around the world; Tim has 2710 outlets in Canada, 336 in the States, and 1 in Khandahar, Afghanistan.
It took me a while to adjust to the change: you can hardly walk three city blocks without tripping over a Starbucks (as of last year, UBC has four). I could count the number of Timmy Ho’s I knew of on one hand. Given the dependence us university students have on our caffeinated beverages, Starbucks became a second home and homework spot. Generally, Starbucks caters to a certain (stereo)type: the yoga moms with the SUV strollers, the high school twelve-year-olds who spend so much of daddy’s money trying to look scrappy in their TNA and Lululemon hoodies, and the six-figure Yaletown loft apartment business men; one almost feels like they need to dress up just to run to the corner for their cup of morning brew. On the other hand, the Timmy’s of suburban Ontario is the local hangout for the school kids, since there is nothing else open after ten o’clock, and where no one gives you the once-over if you come in wearing your boyfriend’s ten-year-old sweatpants rolled up to the knee on a muggy July morning.
After having worked in the coffee industry for a number of years, I have grown to appreciate (and prefer) the simplicity of Tim Horton’s over Starbucks. There is nothing more irritating when you are running late after pulling an all-nighter to write that final term paper and cat-napping a little too long only to stand in line at the corner coffee shop, waiting to order your double, one-percent, extra-hot mocha with whipped cream. Chances have it, the twenty-something office assistant ahead of you decides to today will be the day she will try something different and spends a precious five minutes studying the menu board. At trusty Tim’s, there are three different options: coffee, tea, or hot chocolate, and only two of which are open for modification. A typical 8 a.m. coffee rush consists of delivery van drivers and the elderly (the office workers use the drive-thru) who order the same thing religiously; Queenie, the seasoned team member at the counter processes the line in record time, smiling knowingly as she hands you The Usual.
Now, I’m not saying that double, one-percent, extra-hot mochas with whipped cream are bad; quite the opposite, they are a delicious treat. They are so much a treat, that for one mocha you could get three double-doubles. For the starving university student, money is everything. After three years of rumors, a Tim Horton’s outlet opened at UBC last September: at ten-minutes-to and ten-after the hour, there is a line out the door. The 24-hr Timmy’s that opened during the summer in Kitsilano had to enforce a thirty-minute seating policy because they were being overrun by students in need of that late night caffeine fix during exam season.
Luckily for people like me, Tim Horton’s is starting to get a foothold in Vancouver with a new store opening up in Dunbar in the near future. I am also a proud Starbucks Duetto Visa card holder; some might call me a corporate sell-out. It serves a higher purpose however: I get my fix of double-double delight paid with my Visa which gives me Starbucks dollars to get my mocha treat every so often. My system is pure gold.