08/28/2026
In 2004, I started my very first barista job in downtown Lansing.
Every morning, Paul and Lefty were two of our first customers. They worked maintenance at the State Representatives building nearby, and over time, they became part of the rhythm of our mornings. They’d walk in with a smile, they’d shovel our sidewalk when it snowed, and they were simply the kind of people who made a place feel a little warmer just by showing up.
That was more than 20 years ago.
That coffee shop isn’t in that building anymore. I don’t live in Lansing anymore. Paul doesn’t work there anymore. So much about that little chapter of life has changed.
And then Paul walked through the doors of Simply Roasted to come support me at my own café.
It was one of those full-circle moments that reminds you what community actually is.
Community isn’t necessarily a physical place. It’s the people.
It’s being open enough to connect with the person in front of you. It’s showing up. It’s remembering someone years later because of the way they made you feel. It’s planting roots and investing in whatever space you happen to be in—even when you know you might not be there forever.
And it certainly doesn’t have to happen over coffee or inside our shop.
I just think the world is a whole lot better when different people keep showing up for one another.
More than 20 years later, Paul showed up again—different coffee shop, different chapter, same kind of connection. Proof that the roots we plant can reach much farther than the places where we planted them.
Plant roots. Invest in where you are. Make people feel seen. And keep showing up.
