There's no doubt that A LOT of people love and live on coffee. But I don't just drink coffee now because I need it.

So here's my love affair with coffee.

I started drinking coffee about two and a half years ago when late nights after track practice and early school mornings just really didn’t work out. Half-asleep coffee brewing at 6:30 am became a norm, and my coffee filled mason jar was as important as my backpack on the way to school.

I ventured into the coffee connoisseur waters just a few months after. My vacation to Puerto Rico and drinking gourmet blends from different South American countries every morning was the catalyst. I could not get enough of the amazing aroma and richness.

When I got back home, I was a pioneer on the lookout for obscure vibrant coffee shops. Each coffee shop had a unique personality, and I really appreciated that special individuality. I had a newfound love for coffee and coffee shops.

Then I learned how a simple drink could make a societal impact.

Junior year of high school – I felt like exploring different types of journalism and joined my school’s film club. For a few weeks, we met once a week, studying one-minute films and prepping to create our own. I chose to film my one-minute documentary on The Monkey and The Elephant Café in Philadelphia. I was inspired by the cafe; they recognized the difficulty that youth over 18 years old face when they grow out of the foster system. It’s often difficult for these youths to find employment or fund their way through school, so The Monkey and The Elephant Café hire these teens and train them in business skills for their future endeavors.

I even submitted my film to a local film festival, so that goes to show how coffee can lead to new opportunities (it’s kind of a stretch, I know). But anyways, my documentary experience with a local, socially-fueled café showed me how you could make a societal impact through something as simple as a coffee shop.

This inspiration only expanded into my senior year of high school in AP European History class where I learned more about the historical impact of coffee, which made me appreciate it even more.

When we started the oh-so-intriguing 18^th century Enlightenment, my teacher handed us an article called, “The Internet in a Cup.” It discussed how coffee houses were a sort of safe haven for enlightened discussions of ideas and values, despite the fact that these were also unreliable sources of information. Nonetheless, it brought people together, and these coffee houses developed into meeting places – business men met at one, scientists at another, etc. They became a symbol of the Enlightenment, contrary to the taverns from previous decades. (Also, this is probably why we get the “study/read/chill” vibe in coffee shops.)

I loved that coffee houses brought people together, and I loved that it was a symbol for a larger movement. It inspired me to dream of opening a coffee shop of my own in the future. I wanted to create a space where cool people could drink good coffee and have even better conversations about the world (and take aesthetic Instagram photos). But unless I magically get funding, my groovy coffee shop dream is limited to my Pinterest board.

At this point, I drink any coffee except Starbucks (I’m not a white girl, and it’s close to diabetes in a cup, so it’s a no from me). I drink coffee black when it’s good and I drink coffee when it’s six in the morning and I drink coffee when it’s five in the afternoon.

I drink coffee because its simple caffeine-kick symbolizes the efforts of social justice nonprofits and memorializes historical movements and fuels me and many other individuals to carry on their days of working at their dreams.

May your coffee kick in before reality does.