1. Iced Americanos

To be honest, I can drink a fluffy drink like one of your other Starbucks junkies. But, in my humble (6 years as a baristia) experience, nothing beats the strength of a good espresso poured overtop a mountain of ice (lightly sweetened with vanilla). It confidently states that you are a caffeine addict but you aren’t willing to pay too much for it.

2. Cards from your mom

I graduated last spring, and I’ve been abroad for going on seven months now. The craving for comfort is beyond strong. When I left home, my mother wrote cards that I could open at the beginning of certain months and on days when I feel like everything is hitting the fan, I read the encouragement she put down on paper.

3. Acoustic Guitars

I bought my first guitar at age 16 and taught myself to play it. It is with great sadness that I admit that I have not progressed much in my skills, however, when you are standing amongst your friends on a mountain top or you are sitting around a fire at your friends house, and then you bust out “Wagon Wheel”… tell you what, nothing gets the party started quite like a sing-a-long.

4. Blank Pages

I am as type-A as they come, and yet when it comes to my journal, I refuse to have lines. I have a large, oversized molskeine journal that contains everything from sermon notes, to prayers, doodles, personal thoughts, and it looks like my right brain just vomited on the page. But that is how my mind works, and I can’t help that sometimes I need to write in giant capitol letters to make a point to myself. Worth every penny.

5. Real Friends

The one thing I keep hearing as of late is that, “I will love you no matter what you do.” If we aren’t careful, our relationships are either conditional or convenient. We can keep things surface level and never wade out into the deep waters of our heart, where we expose our broken nature. I’ve been fortunate in finding that the people who I though would react the harshest to my shortcomings are actually those who are standing beside me.