An iced mocha so delicious that I couldn't stop drinking long enough to take a decent picture with a full cup, and a salmon and cream cheese croissant sandwich that I practically swallowed whole. Mmm!

New Yorker's, I call upon you all to drop what you're doing and try a cup of Joe at Joe Coffee Co. (...I'm really proud of that sentence.) I could practically taste the dedication this brewery has to providing an excellent cup to an "underserved community".

Honestly, I get Starbuck's way too often here. With the pre-order system and all those rewards, it makes it kind of hard to resist. But you know what I loved about my mocha from Joe's? It wasn't Starbuck's. There wasn't anything about that seemed uniform, it had a flavor and a body all it's own. If I were to go back there tomorrow and order a mocha, it wouldn't taste the same as today, I can almost guarantee it. This is espresso with a soul, you guys. 

Another thing to note, the minimalistic aesthetic inside the shop itself is every insta-savvy-millenial's dream. If it weren't for the fact that the seat I had my eye on was taken about 5 seconds before I got my drink, I would've spent all day in that place. Also, fun fact, Joe Coffee actually offers various classes such as "Cupping for Beginners", "Latte Art Skills", and "Explorations in Roasting". Classes. A coffee shop that has classes. To teach you about coffee. If this were a cult, I'd join it. 

I ended up walking back down to my little spot at Lincoln Center and setting up shop. For the most part I read through Anna and the King of Siam for class. It was about 63 degrees, cloudy, and windy, so I didn't last there for very long. I wasn't quite ready to go back to my dorm, so I made the impulse decision to head over to Aroma Espresso Bar & Cafe. 

Since I'd already had my caffeine fix, I ordered the salmon and cream cheese croissant sandwich, which is perfect for me. It's just salmon, cream cheese, and bread! That's like my whole diet right there! But you know what made Aroma just the teeniest bit better than Joe for me today? 

They had room for me to sit down. 

Granted, again, I was sitting outside. But this time around it was a spacious back patio on the second level of the cafe, so no wind! This place is actually HUGE for the average New York cafe. There were tons of people there with laptops and notebooks. I think I may have stumbled upon the UWS number one study joint? 

I want to be clear, I realize how geeky I sound when I write all this. But a little birdie told me that I should just embrace ALL the geeky-ness I have to offer the world. So, here you go world. 

At one point while I was getting some more work done at Aroma, a girl and a woman came out to the patio. The girl kept taking pictures of the woman, I'm not entirely sure what for, but it was not going well. Honestly, I felt bad for them both. The woman was really self-conscious because she felt she looked bad in every picture, and the young photographer was getting a little frustrated by all the woman's "advice" on how to make the picture better. It kind of got me thinking. Why do we get so insecure about ourselves, and do we ever really grow out of it? 

I thought back to my childhood, trying to figure out when it was that insecurity started taking over. My initial conclusion was it all came in full swing the second I started middle school, which for the most part, that's true. I think it all really began a few years earlier, but the peak was definitely middle school. I swear, the air in that building was just thick with confidence, body, and identity issues. Not to mention the hormones, and the angst. Blegh. I think I went through seven different 'phases' in three years? We don't need to get into that. 

I ended up going online and doing a crap ton of research about insecurity. Side note, google is such a wonderful tool. Turns out, insecurity tends to stem from recent failures/rejection, social anxiety, and perfectionism. Furthermore, recent studies have shown that social anxiety and perfectionism don't just come from sociocultural pressures, they can also be inherited traits. So, I guess that answers my question about where insecurity stems from, however every story is different. 

Now, to answer whether or not we ever 'grow out' of insecure behaviors, I guess I'll just have to get back to everyone in about 50 years. Hoping for the best, though.