"Cause an affect"

This just goes to prove that you don’t know what affect you have on people around you….

Most of you already know that I have coffee every morning at Panera Bread. Overtime I’ve met several people during this time and a small group of us have become regulars who are there day in, day out sharing life and laughter. I call them my “Panera Peeps.”

Several months ago a couple of young women came in and sat amongst our little group. Well ok, they didn’t actually sit with us, but they sat at a table in our vicinity. They always greeted us but went to their table towards the back, opened their laptops and put in their earbuds and began studying. They didn’t come in every day but they were consistent in showing up several times a week. Our little group can get quite boisterous at times and I often wondered, even with earbuds in, if we disrupted their studies.

Overtime we saw the med students less and less. Eventually it just became hit and miss as to when they would pay a visit to Panera.

When I arrived at Panera none of my ususal ‘peeps’ were there so I just took a seat in one of the more comfortable chairs behind the fireplace and started to read my Bible. Not long after I’d started one of the med students showed up and sat down in the other chair behind the fire place. I said good morning to her and asked how her studies were going. We exchanged some additional idle chit chat and she opened her book for study and I went back to my iPad reading.

It wasn’t long after that she looked over and asked me, “Is it true that you come in here every day? How did you start that?” I told her how I’d gone to a place in Granger called Grains and Grinds for a long time every morning to do my reading and journaling but they eventually closed and I migrated over to Panera. I said after you consistently come in to a place for awhile you begin to meet people and conversations begin. Before I knew it there was a group of us that now come in and sit together nearly every day and just talk about life.

She went on to tell me how awesome she thought that was and what a huge blessing we were and are to her and the other med student that was coming in with her. She said their lives were virtually go to class and sleep. Med school virtually was their lives. She paused, but then went on to say what a blessing our little group had been to them. We brought some normalcy back into their lives that they couldn’t get anywhere else. Even thought they came in and had their earbuds in and were deep into study we gave them a sense of peace. She said they so looked forward to coming into Panera knowing they would see familiar faces and life going on as it should. She said we helped keep them going. They really appreciated us.

Who knew!

Just goes to show, we’re always “on” and you never know the impact you can make on someone elses life.