Nothin’ like a good chat over good coffee! Seba (one of my brilliant film school friends) and I set a date to meet at Northside Social Coffee this morning, right around downtown Arlington. When I walked in, the aroma of fresh coffee smacked a smile on my face 🙂 It was kind of packed during the mid-morning hour, but I didn’t care because I loved the atmosphere. There were small groups, couples, and single individuals either socializing or engulfed in their MacBooks and/or smartphones- the millennial age. The place seems perfect for intellectuals, creatives, and professionals.

I took a seat upstairs and messaged Seba to confirm my arrival. Funny enough, she was already waiting downstairs so we missed each other. LOL. She came upstairs and we greeted with a warm hug. We haven’t seen each other since the end of last semester, so it was a sweet reunion 🙂 As a Northside Social regular, Seba recommended and blessed me with a Cortado (pictured above). I sniffed (like a connoisseur), then sipped. It was SO GOOD. The flavor was strong. It was smooth and creamy. It had a natural sweetness that didn’t require additional sugar. After a few more sips, we got into the good stuff- creative talk.

It’s what we (creatives) do. Sit around and talk creativity. We share and bounce ideas off of one another. We talk about our life experiences. We talk about our future endeavors. We talk about faith. We talk about our inner feeling. We tie all of these elements together to develop powerful stories. Seba and I are both writers, so we chatted about some of Hollywood’s great writers and directors. We chatted about cameras, sound techniques, editing…all the good stuff film school students talk about 🙂

We reflected on the array of knowledge and experiences we’ve gained through our various courses during our time as graduate films students at AU (American University). Many of the courses have been challenging (and occasionally frustrating); however, the perseverance has refined us tremendously. We laughed as we reminisced on the various silly mistakes we made on production assignments. MISTAKES. It’s how we learned. It’s how we’re still learnING- with a capital ING (present-tense). We reflected on the overall joy of our time at AU and how fast the time has flown by (Seba just graduated last semester, I graduate this December).

God. Faith. I appreciate a good conversation about the King. Seba showed me this dope time-lapse video she created with clouds passing over the city. It was beautiful. We just sat in awe reflecting on God’s creation. I mean, how can anyone say God doesn’t exist. He is the ultimate creator! 🙂 (Romans 1:20)

CULTURE! I prefer to spend time with foreign cultures than my own! WHY? Because I’ve been around people like me my entire life. I want to grow. I want to learn about the unfamiliar. Seba is a Saudi native, so we exchanged a lot of cultural facts. I learned how to say ‘Hi’ in Arabic 🙂 We walked a little through the city and talked photography- the various methods of creatively capturing moments. FUN!

I could go on and on and on about the convo over coffee but the main thing I gained from our meeting (besides great coffee) is inspiration- inspiration to take full advantage of the remainder of my time at AU, inspiration to STUDY and MASTER my passion(s), inspiration to explore and learn about the world for a fresh perspective, inspiration to keep my faith and maintain my altitude. I LOVE positive people. I LOVE positive energy. I LOVE good coffee.

On that note, thanks Seba, next time it’s on me 🙂