I don’t remember when I started drinking Café 47’s cold brew oat latte (which the café staff like to call “cold brew OGs”), but it’s my go-to drink whenever I need a sweet, caffeinated pick-me-up on Pomona College’s campus. For many semesters, it has saved me from mid-afternoon slumps, allowing me to push through my numerous 1:15 to 4 p.m. seminars with an alert mind. The cold brew oat latte has become a familiar beverage throughout my college experience — an energizing companion, a reliable friend.
Little did I know, though, that come the start of my senior spring, this coffee drink would carry a new, wholly amusing memory.
After returning from a club meeting on the first Friday of the semester, to my dismay, I realized that my student ID was missing.
I spent the whole day eating, working, napping and scrolling on TikTok in my room. So where on earth did it go?
“It has to be in my room, then,” I thought to myself. “Where else would it be?”
That evening, I nearly tore my room apart searching for my ID but it was nowhere to be found. I went to sleep and continued searching in the morning to no avail — it had disappeared. I glumly resigned myself to getting a new ID first thing on Monday morning.
I thankfully made it through the weekend without my ID and returned to campus on Sunday night after spending the afternoon at home. I was grateful to the Pomona student who graciously swiped my ID-less self into Walker Hall so that I didn’t have to pathetically wait (in the rain) for someone to let me in. Once I arrived at my room, however, a friend suddenly texted me.
“Did you lose your ID? Someone found it but they’re selling it on Fizz!”
I opened her text and was shocked to see a photo of my ID priced at $10 on Fizz. I don’t even have the app myself, so I was utterly flabbergasted. I couldn’t stop laughing.
What happened to the kind souls posting lost IDs on the Facebook page 5C For Sale/For Free and meeting up with the person to return it? Who on earth was trying to sell my ID?
Within the next hour, more of my friends who were on Fizz started texting me.
“Have you found your ID? You saw this, right?”
The thread had quickly blown up and, at this point, over 1.5k students knew that I had lost my ID — and coined me as an “old” 2002-er.
Going viral on Fizz was absolutely not on my senior year bingo card. I went to bed that night cackling and shaking my head in disbelief.
The next morning, I promptly headed over to the Housing and Residence Life Office at the opening hour and secured a new ID. It was comical — even though there was nobody outside, I felt so perceived in my ID-less state. I felt like the squirrels, the birds and even the trees knew.
“If I run into someone, what are the chances that they saw the Fizz thread?” I wondered as I quickly shuffled my feet towards the SCC.
Within minutes of speaking with the HRL staff, a freshly printed ID was soon in my possession. Walking out of the office, I clutched it tightly, laughing to myself once more.
“I better not lose this,” I vowed. “Not within mere months of graduating. I don’t want to see my ID on Fizz again.”
I had initially planned to return to my room right away, but upon leaving HRL, I suddenly remembered that Café 47 was open.
“I deserve a drink after an eventful weekend,” I thought.
“Although I had gotten this drink countless times throughout my time at Pomona, I swear that it tasted the best that day.”
Wanting a sweet little pick-me-up, I knew it was time for a cold brew oat latte. Although I had gotten this drink countless times throughout my time at Pomona, I swear that it tasted the best that day.
The latte tasted like refreshing relief after over 1000 students were suddenly engrossed in your lost ID extravaganza.
When the frothy liquid hit my lips, I smiled at this absurd new memory that a favorite caffeinated beverage would now remind me of: the time I went viral at school on an app I don’t even use. The time someone had the audacity to sell my ID online. The time I got roasted for being born in 2002 (gap year students unite!)
It is moments like these that make my final semester at Pomona a memorable one, and we are only in the beginning weeks.
I really hope I don’t see myself on Fizz again. I really hope that the next time I order a cold brew oat latte, it’s with the same ID I got that Monday.
So, to whoever found my ID and posted it online, I want to say thanks for making me laugh. I wish you had just given it back, but it made for a senior spring story that I will never forget.
Emily Kim PO ’25 is from Irvine, California. She admits that when she saw people on Fizz calling her “unc” for being born in 2002, she didn’t know what that meant and proceeded to Google “unc slang meaning” in the comfort of her bed.