the coin wash

I was picking up a medium Mexican pizza for dinner one day and I parked in front of a coin wash. I never really think much of it but this time, it sort of hit me. It was a dingy little store, with flickering lights and a tired lady behind the counter. There were laundry detergent for sale in the glass case and rusty, old steel carts meant for transporting clothes. I saw mothers hauling their over-filled laundry baskets of soiled clothes, people sitting around waiting for their clothes to dry, and washing machines spinning in circles and circles as if they are on a time-crunch, washing the clothes faster until their owners come back. 

I thought about my college days, living in dorms. It was the first time I had to wash my clothes in a public place. I remember I would leave my clothes overnight all the time at the laundry room because I would forget or I was lazy. I trusted my classmates and I knew washing clothes in the laundry room was temporary, not forever, because I only had to live in the dorms until the school year ended. 

But these people have to do it forever. I never realized how good I have it because all I had to do was lug my laundry downstairs and my clothes are dried and clean in an hour or so. And that seem like a lot of work to me. And sometimes, when the load is small, my mother would take my dirty clothes and they would be washed and folded on my bed after. 

Coin washes are places where nobodies go- you don't find a celebrity or a businessman there doing their laundry. It made me think that coin washes would be the perfect place for a secret hideout or a meeting room. Or if you need to hide something extremely valuable or important. The coin wash is such a inconspicuous and innocuous place, it would be the last place for someone to look and the first place someone would think cross off in their list of places to look. 

Observing the coin wash that night made me realize that I have so much to be thankful for. It's something so simple as doing laundry that can spark the appreciation in me.

You never really think about it but there are at least five people who prepared the food to be in front of me. The people pick the food, the people that pack the food, the people that deliver the food and then my mother buying the food and cooking it for me. So much goes into one meal and I never truly appreciated it because I never starved. 

Reading "The Nightingale" by Kristin Hannah really, really made me appreciate every bite of my food. People who suffered during wars were on the brink of hell, just like my own grandpa. I never realized how something as simple as food is something we all take for granted everyday so I'll try not to take advantage of energy for life. 

Because once it's gone, everything starts to fall and you long for the lavishness you once had. 

So, once you start to appreciate one thing, your heart starts to be appreciative of almost everything. You have to train your eyes to see things you have instead of things you don't have. And once you start doing that, your life will become a little brighter than it was before. 

Karina Ip     February 10th, 2025