Friends had Central Perk. How I Met Your Mother had Maclaren's Pub. Saved by the Bell had The Max. Me? I have Park Ave.

Park Avenue Cafe, or Park Ave. as us overworked actor types love to call it, is my Central Perk. It's a small coffee shop right across from campus and it's a welcome escape from the Starbucks that surround campus at every corner. While I have nothing wrong with Starbucks, Park Ave's atmosphere is something that just needs to be experienced.

My first experience with Park Ave. was last year, when I went there with a group of my actor friends. I always get nervous going to unknown coffee places for the first time. It's a little like a first date. I barely know the menu, everyone seems to be one step ahead of me, and I get very anxious. But, my thoughts on Park Ave. are the equivalent of what love at first sight is said to feel like. I look forward to heading to school because I can always go to Park Ave. I'm greeted by lovely baristas who really try to get to know me, with the sounds of Rachmaninoff, Beethoven, and the Boston Pops playing in their speakers, and for the more athletically-inclined, there is always Spanish football playing on the TV in the back of the cafe. It feels like a bistro, and it's everything I've ever wanted in a coffee establishment.

The staff that works there are some of the nicest people ever. I constantly find myself spending more and more time talking to my favorite barista (who happens to be a good friend of mine) as we mutually kvetch about the machinations of life and school and all various happenings. We dance a familiar tango, and the steps go like this: I greet her, she greets me, I ask for the largest coffee they can get me (a la Lorelei Gilmore, minus the seduction), she jokes and asks if I want it to go or my usual "bucket", we laugh, we catch up, I sit down, she gets back to work. Some people say that routine is a problem, but this particular routine is one that I can get used to.

Park Ave has been the home for many work meetings, class meetings, awkward first dates, even more awkward Tinder dates, relaxation sessions and so much more. I've sat in every booth, at every table, and every time I go in, it always seems like there is some new experience there, and I love it. It's in those booths at Park Ave where I, for only $2.25, get not just a cup of coffee, but an absolutely defining sense of self. I'll always be grateful for the sessions I have with an actor friend of mine where I order my large coffee and he his chicken salad sandwich and always offers me his potato salad, or where I eat my breakfast bagel and contemplate future ideas that I have. And whenever someone asks to meet me somewhere and they don't know where Park Ave. is, I tell them "Look for the red umbrellas". So, whenever you're feeling low, feeling unsure, feeling jubilant, find your red umbrella coffee shop, wherever you may be.