Hello all Baristas and Coffee aficionados!

I'm really curious to hear everyone's stories about how they got involved in the industry, why they stuck around and what makes coffee so awesome! Share stories about your favorite regulars and funny run-ins or the most interesting order you've ever gotten!

I strove to hack into the barista world here in Portland when I started hanging out at Backspace a lot. I really enjoyed the ease with which I got to know my baristas there, I enjoyed our ability to become more than customer and server but friends! I really wanted to be apart of that kind of community and I loved that I could find it in coffee shops! Loitering around as a high school student and not getting yelled at for doing so was such a relief! Being talked to as an equal with valid experiences was really awesome too, as a kid from the burbs I really appreciated these people, they made my nights. I wanted to do that for others. Getting paid for doing such things was way too cool to me. I remember playing pool with my baristas on their breaks and swapping thoughts on the taste of coffee, they really helped and inspired me to enter the industry. I even meet my boyfriend at Backspace almost 2 and half years ago, and some of my best friends are often found loitering around Backspace still.
What keeps me interested and excited in the industry are all the leaps and bounds in sustainability and all the great people I meet, talk to and become great friends.