Wheaton Students and their Quest for a Cup

Upon arriving at your first class of the day, if you take a moment to look around at your fellow classmates you may notice that right next to their notebooks and pens most will have a cup of coffee. I myself begin most days the same way. The relationship between coffee and college students is not a new subject, but I wanted to learn more about it amongst my friends and classmates here at Wheaton. First of all, everyone has different ways of getting their preferred cup. Besides from filling up at one of the dining halls, some purchase it at one of the campus’s cafes, others brew it in their rooms, some even drive to the nearest Dunkin Donuts. Their preferred cup may come hot or iced, black or heavy with cream in sugar. Regardless of the form it comes in, its caffeine content gives you some kind of boost. More interesting than its different forms is the different ways in which people talk about coffee. Personally, I am a big coffee drinker. No day really begins until my first cup, which I prefer to brew in my room. Though I am hesitant to admit it, I have come to realize that I depend on that caffeine boost to wake up. I even drink coffee later in the day to help me push through a study session. In conversations with other coffee drinkers, I’ve found that they refer to it as if it were an addictive, even dangerous consumable. I’ve heard people say that they are trying to avoid coffee for the day, even express happily that they have gotten through hours or days without a cup. Others will complain of headaches and other “withdrawal” symptoms after an extended period without. During finals week, it seemed as if all concerns and customs associated with coffee are temporarily suspended, as I found I was not the only one drinking coffee well into the night. And yet, I managed to have a few conversations with people who thought about coffee in a different way than I did. They did not drink coffee for the effects, but preferred to savor it for its taste. Some told me that they did not want to be controlled by caffeine. Hearing others talk about coffee in this way has caused me to call my own habits into question, and lately I’ve been trying to limit my consumption. Black tea has become my go-to substitute, but I find myself missing the characteristic coffee boost. Though I am determined to slow my coffee habits and savor the taste that made me a coffee drinker in the first place, we’ll see what happens when spring semester gets into full swing.