Caffeine Fix

Café, j'taime.

I discovered coffee late in life, and far too late in college. It's funny the things you don't fully appreciate at the time, like the free coffee in the dining halls. We weren't allowed to take food out of the dining halls (...though we had already paid for it), but we had unlimited access to cups of coffee-as many as you could carry out you could have. I did four cups one time in preparation for a long night in the library during the finals period. How clutch would that be now.

I first started seriously downing the C when I took my first law class, Maritime Policy. It was a 3-hour Friday morning class, so it was either that or turn to drugs. I chose the less illegal route. But even with a double espresso there were moments that tried my very academic soul. My friend Ale, a self-identified caffeine fiend, first introduced me during this time to the saving grace that was caffeine.

Before this class, it had never occurred to me before to drink it. I thought it tasted foul. It stunted my growth, I was told, and I harbored beliefs that I would hit a second growth spurt and one day hit 5'8". (I still hope for this, but have accepted coffee as a delicious substitute.) So for the trying classes I tried to bully on through the awkward head nod that happens when you're narcoleptically falling asleep in class and fighting with every muscle in your body to keep your eyes somewhat open. Ale would make me an espresso before class, and then together we'd feel more able to tackle 16th century ocean law. From that point on, I realized my love for the coffee bean.

If not for caffeine, I never would have gotten through the following courses: Psychology Experimentation and Statistics. (Makes me tired just thinking about it) Climate Change (I thought it was going to be a tree-hugging-let's-save-the-earth course! but it ended up involving things like chemistry and physics. At 8:30 in the morning.) Introduction to Fiction Writing Workshop which, even at 1pm in the afternoon, had an intoxicating soporific effect. My teacher even commented to me, in class evaluations, that there was a noticeable change when she saw me bring in my coffee mug. But as a writer herself, I'm sure she understood my need. Aspiring writers tend to talk a lot about ideas. And in the sometimes 4-hour workshop, one needed a little fix to wrap their heads around characters like talking snakes and the additional images of bleeding trees.

Looking back, it puzzles me exactly how I got through high school and college on as much sleep as I did. 6 hours a night, was I insane?! It was like a self-enforced sleep deprivation experiment. I can't even go out on weekends now if I feel a bit tired, how did I go out three days a week last year? Willpower, man. It is everything. Willpower and caffeine.

Last night I slept a record (even for me) 11 hours. And then I woke up this morning exhausted. Mind you, I slept this long after a vacation spent sleeping and lounging around the house on furniture in all sorts of reclined positions. But I still had to drink a large cup of coffee before I felt like a semi-functioning human being and for my two nephews to deem me fun enough to play with. To be fair, unless I'm swinging them around and constantly acting as official piggy-back giver, they feel I could be more energetic than I am. So this afternoon I am going to have two cups, and thus turn into: Super nanny. All thanks to my one true liquid love, coffee.