Concordia Mourns Loss of Beloved Drink

Photo by Sonja Brandt

By Victoria Cameron

10:31 Coffee is one of the campus’ most iconic spots. It has drinks and snacks, your favorite baristas and access to the rest of J-Top. But this year it has given us cause to mourn: 10:31 has officially erased Italian sodas from its menu.

Last year Italian soda was on the menu with a sticky note over it saying “unavailable.” The sticky note was there almost the whole year, giving hope that one day the drink would become available once more, but that day never arrived. Instead we got a changed menu, leaving us a changed campus and myself a changed student.

10:31 gives us one of the few joys of college life: coffee. And similarly inspiring beverages such as hot chocolate and London Fog. Losing even one of these rays of hope is a devastating blow.

Of course, we are college students. We can handle disappointment. It’s the larger issue that is more threatening: what’s next? If Italian soda can disappear, anything can, even our President. Your favorite drink (if it wasn’t Italian soda) might be the next to go.

College is a world of uncertainties. Will tuition go up? (Yes.) Will I accidentally skip class? (Yes.) Will I hate my roommate? (…) We need consistency in our lives. We need to know that at least one earthly thing will never change for the worse, and only introduce new goodnesses into our lives.

As always, it’s a good time to remember who never changes: God. God won’t suddenly revoke His love for us. God also won’t refuse to forgive us for failing to keep Italian sodas on our menus.

We all fall short of God’s glory in many ways. Fortunately, we know that we, as individuals, can turn to God, and that 10:31, as a business, is working hard to retain and increase customer satisfaction. If they’ve changed their menu, it is because they are confident they can more than make up for our disappointment.

So let us grieve together, sisters and brothers at Concordia. Let us grieve for the Italian soda, and let us pass through the five stages of grief together to reach acceptance. When that day comes, let us step forward together so that we may see all the good things that have been prepared for us.