There is a lesson in loss. No matter how large or small, each loss (or change) is an opportunity to learn. You can learn from misplacing your keys one too many times, watching a development grow right underneath your nose, or the loss of a pet.
Loss may teach you to slow down, speed up, or encourage you to have a greater appreciation for your surroundings — and the places that make where you are what “it” is.
That’s what the Daily Grind is to us.
Not all of us have an appreciation for Tough Guy Chais, but we’ll miss the smell of coffee as soon as we walk into the store beside the Pit. We’re surely going to miss calling the building on South Rd. “Student Stores.” The Student Stores and the Daily Grind in it, are both things that helped shaped what Carolina is to us.
It’s places like the Union, Lenoir and the quad that make UNC what is it because those are the places where we find ourselves able to discover and experience “our Carolina.”
At the end of the day, each student and person that walks on this campus could have an entirely different experience. But it’s the places — the shops on Franklin, the uneven bricks on the road to south campus and late night rides on the P2P that connect each of our experiences together. It is the beauty in UNC parents being able to point out where they hung out on the same campus 20+ years later while attending orientation with their child. That’s the magic in UNC — and locations in general.
It’s that magic that is why losing the Daily Grind is so important to us. Its great coffee options, and the fact that its presence has likely been a small part of the Carolina experience for all students and faculty throughout the past 20 years.
It can be so easy to get immersed in our thoughts and responsibilities that we forget to be present and appreciate what surrounds us.
For current students, the blue shirts that populate the Union, the fun facts that greet you before each gym session and the uneven bricks may not be here when we visit years from now. It won’t be the same Carolina as the one that welcomes the class of 2032.
