It’s 1 a.m., and I’m probably going to be awake for at least another hour or two. That 8 a.m. class tomorrow morning — or rather, later today — is staring me down like an angry lioness on the hunt. The inevitable is going to happen again … I’m going to start dozing off in class. I’ll go bobbing for hypothetical apples as my head droops and I snap to my senses ad infinitum. Having inflicted upon myself such an unreasonable schedule, I won’t return to my apartment until 11 p.m. that night, and the cycle will continue. But do not pity me, for I have found a savior in my hour of greatest need (which is the hour I spend getting ready every morning): my beloved Keurig coffeemaker.
To clear the air, I’m still a tea-drinker. If I have to choose between coffee and tea based on flavor alone, I will almost always choose tea. There’s something about the herbal and minty goodness of the classy drink that keeps me coming back for more. Anyone who knows me personally has some awareness of my obsession with Peace Tea, as well — I enjoy iced tea just as much as its warmer variant. Throughout my time at college, however, I have found that tea does not give me the kick in the butt that I need to get through each inevitably busy day in my rigorous school week. For this reason, I turned to coffee last semester.
I don’t drink coffee because it tastes fabulous. I drink coffee because I have to. In the spirit of doing things out of necessity, I drink my coffee black. When training myself to stomach the bean-y beverage, I originally tried to make the flavor more palatable with some half-and-half and pinches of sugar. I quickly realized that habitually altering the flavor of my coffee with artificial sweeteners and dollops of dairy would become monotonous. So, I forced myself, from that point on, to drink my coffee without any additives. “If I can drink tea without sugar and cream, then coffee should be no different,” I told myself. Of course, I also figured that coffee would not become a mainstay in my beverage-consumption habits — I just thought I would need an extra jolt here and there to get through my particularly rough junior fall semester.
So here we are in my spring semester, and I have found myself even more desperate for a boost in energy. Snagging coffee from the Blue Bean every morning would take too much time. The midpoint in the semester now behind us, I wonder if I would have made it this far without my trusty Keurig. Without the instant coffee every morning, how could I stay awake in my classes? Would I be able to spend my mornings with middle school students without falling asleep sans my beloved coffeemaker? My Keurig is the best investment I have made in a considerably long time.
From a statistical standpoint, I have nodded off in class only twice in the past three weeks with my Keurig. This is a tremendous improvement from my track record in the fall. Quite frankly, I feel bad for dozing off in class, as I’m typically interested in the material but don’t have the energy to stay awake and absorb it. People would always tell me to “get more sleep,” as if it were that easy, but I am glad to say that I have found a solution to my sleep deprivation. I would recommend anyone who can’t keep their eyes open in class to get a Keurig. It has made my life significantly more survivable.
This is where I was tempted to end my article (it’s 3 a.m. as of my writing this article, and I was distracted listening to Pentatonix for a while), but there’s more to be said on this topic. I know dozens of other people who own Keurigs, many of whom were wondering why I didn’t get one sooner. And there are plenty of people who do not own Keurigs, but at least guzzle some caffeinated drink of their choice in order to get through each day. As much as I tried to avoid it for the first 20 years of my life, I have become a coffee junkie. I would argue that we live in a caffeinated culture.
Quite frankly, we’re too busy for our own good — by “we,” I mean the typical college student or working person. If we need to put some kind of substance into our bodies to manage it each day, that means we’re probably doing too much, right? We should spend less time moving and more time sleeping. We shouldn’t commit to 20 credits per semester, along with two field placements on top of it, which I happen to be doing this semester. Oh, my Keurig — what would I do without you? We should involve ourselves in fewer commitments and spend less time chatting it up with friends at the wee hours of the evening. Let’s respect our bodies and turn off the Keurigs for good!
Except, I’d be lying if I told you I agreed with any of that. Morbid as it sounds, I have always believed I can sleep when I’m dead. Admittedly, I enjoy a good 10 hours of sleep on the rare occasion I can find a weekend to snooze that long. But I believe in maximizing each day, and if throwing back some coffee enables me to do just that, I’m more than happy to do so.
This, friends, is why my Keurig is the best investment I’ve made in a long time: because it helps me get a little more out of each day. And every minute is precious.
