Five Reasons Coffee Is An Important Part of My Life

I’ve been drinking coffee since junior high or high school. Somewhere in there I started my mornings with a cup of coffee, a lot of cream and about 10lbs of sugar. Not really, but looking back it feels like it. How you drink your coffee can say a lot about who you are as a person. Whether any of those are scientifically true or not, I always am interested in the hundreds of different ways there are to drink coffee. 

Over the years my taste in coffee has evolved, but so has the meaning of coffee to me. Not only is it a great way to start the work day but it also has been a large part of some of my favorite memories.

Morning Caffeine Boost

This should go without saying, but there are days where I question how I would have made it through the day without a cup of coffee or three. The main reason most people drink coffee is for the boost of caffeine in the morning. For now I try and start my mornings with a run followed up by a cup of coffee. The combination of the two have been a great adrenaline filled morning routine for me.

Morning Snuggles

One of my favorite things that we have started making part of our weekend routine is coffee, a show, books & a morning snuggle. Little man loves waking up on the weekends and watching “Lightning McQueen” while I read whatever book I’m in the middle of. I make my cup of coffee & he gets his cup of coffee (also known as milk). These mornings won’t last forever so I love to soak in the snuggles.

The Taste

To be honest, I love the taste of coffee. Now, I will be the first to admit that I do not drink coffee black. With that being said though I love a flavored coffee with a little bit of skim or almond milk more than any other drink. I’ve tried a number of flavors over the years and truly don’t have a favorite. As long as there is some kind of flavor, coffee is a nice morning treat.

Coffee Means Time with Friends

In high school we routinely made trips up to the local Sufficient Grounds (later named Beaners and now Bigbby coffee). Sometimes our trips were just to hang out with friends, other times there was homework involved. Most of my pictures of hanging out with my high school friends took place in a coffee shop. On the extremely rare occasion that we are back in town together we try and make a trip back to our old stomping grounds.

Thinking back to some of my favorite times in college they involved coffee too. We had a great little coffee shop at Valpo called Grinders. I couldn’t count the number of times that I met friends there on Sundays before spending the day in the library.

Karissa and I made a point to walk there after our dreaded meteorology class every day one semester, even though she hated coffee at the time. While it didn’t help either of us pass meteorology, it made for a great conversation and time with my best friend.

After college, I found my knitting group at a local coffee shop. For three or four years we met every Monday night to enjoy coffee and a late night caffeine boost.

Chances are if you ask me to meet up somewhere, the first thing I will do is find the coffee shop.

Great Date Night

As for the biggest role it played in my life… my husband and had our first official date at Starbucks. We were going to a late night showing of Zombieland so we stopped and hung out at Starbucks for a few hours. Unfortunately they closed soon after we got there so we wound up walking around with our lattes waiting until the movie started.

That worked out pretty well 🙂

What does coffee mean to you? Has it played a major role in your life?