Happiness? Well, it’s a coffee of course!

During 2020, there wasn’t exactly a lot for me to be excited about. I had lost my final year of school, my summer plans were taken away from me, and as a result, my 19th year, which was supposed to be the most free and independent went to being the most isolating and lonely.

So, like everyone else did, I had to find joy in the smaller things. I took on painting, learnt some sign language, started doing yoga, ate my weight in chocolate – the usual self-care. Through months of trying new activities and learning new things, I found that there were a few small but significant things in my life that had a huge impact on my happiness. One of them – the main one in fact – was coffee.

Now it might sound silly but hear me out with this one. During the surge of Covid in May 2020, I started to work for the NHS. My duties included handing out PPE to staff and patients, and cleaning touch points every 15 minutes. Some days were hard, I saw people who were very sick and remembered how I had also been in that position not two months earlier.

But, when I look back on that time, it’s not that aspect that stands out. For me, it was the coffee I had every morning.

My colleagues (who were also just 18 at the time) and I would line up with the other hospital staff to get our morning caffeine fix. We would laugh and joke, check in with the nurses and doctors with whom we had become acquainted, and drink our delicious coffee.

The first time I was called a hero by a patient, I handed them a mask and some gloves, while holding a coffee in the other hand. When I got given ear protectors from a lovely woman because she saw how sore mine were from the masks, I had a coffee on the table next to me.

On the days when I didn’t want to get out of bed because I knew what the news would say, it was the thought of having a coffee with my mum that got me going. Drinking coffee and ignoring what was going on outside, for a few moments I got to enjoy my mornings.

I would binge Netflix rom coms whilst eating ice cream as a way to fill out days of isolation, and I’d drink my coffee alongside the protagonist. For a little while I could escape, I could be the one on a café date with an attractive man, instead of at home with my dogs (much as I love them, of course!).

It therefore seemed that every good moment coincided with me having a coffee.

Even now, at my incredible job, when I hear “anyone want a drink?” I smile, because it’s another chance for something great to happen with a cup in my hand. Or maybe I’m just addicted to caffeine.

Either way, coffee’s pretty great.

Feel free to have a chat with Molly over a coffee by getting in touch to find out how Nielsen McAllister can support your communications programme.