Marie Echols, Campus Carrier Copy Editor
T.S. Elliot once said, “I have measured out my life in coffee spoons,” and I don’t know about you, but I’ve never related to something more in my life. That scene in Gilmore Girls where Rory is crying in therapy because she really loves coffee. That’s me. Some people (the worst kind of people) just really don’t like coffee though, and they make several arguments against it. First, it stunts your growth. Second, it has too much caffeine. Third, tea is classier. Fourth, it tastes bad.
First of all, I gave up on thinking that I would ever be taller than 5’3” in the eighth grade, and I’ve coped with this by buying lots of cute heels. Secondly, I need caffeine for survival which means this is not a bad thing unless the world needs another really grumpy person in it. Therefore, I don’t see the issue with either of these things.
Thirdly, I agree: drinking tea does sound classy. I wish I could be one of those people that casually sips tea by the fire and says things like “let me put on some tea for you my dear.” But when you’re running on four hours of sleep and still need to crank out a paper that lives up to the expectations of say, T.S. Elliot, classy doesn’t cut it. I need starter fluid. The strongest stuff you’ve got. Or, as Lorelei Gilmore would say, “I need coffee in an IV.” Fourthly, well that argument is just invalid.
All joking aside, coffee is about so much more than just survival. It brings people together. It’s there for the lineman who’s about to be out all night because of a storm that caused half the town to be out of power. It’s there for the college athlete who may be clutching his coffee mug a little too tightly the morning after another long night of practice. It’s there for the old man who has drank it black his whole life because “that’s how real men take their coffee.” It’s even there for the girl who will eventually learn to drink it cold because she always takes too long getting a picture of it because it matches her aesthetic.
No matter what all of these people will do throughout the rest of their day, they have that one thing in common. They get up to the sound of coffee brewing. They grab a cute mug from Target, a beat-up thermos or “that mug we stole from Waffle House that one time,” and fill it up with something that makes the room smell like home, no matter where they are.
Drinking coffee becomes somewhat of a ritual, and the day is thrown off without it. It’s kind of like when you realize halfway through class that your shirt is on inside out or you forgot to put on mascara so you look as dead on the outside as you feel on the inside. This view of coffee being a necessity is probably why all of my Flexbucks are gone. Well, that and Chick- Fil-A, but I won’t get into the blessings that are chicken nuggets.
The key to survival is learning to find joy in the little things, even if your cup of coffee is anything but little. If you feel like there’s no one who understands you, go to a coffee shop. Everyone in there has at least one thing in common with you, and that’s a love for coffee (and maybe sleep deprivation.) I guess what I’m saying is: there isn’t much in life that can’t be solved by taking a breath and a sip.