There are many things I love in life: my friends, my family, my hometown, my school, etc. But I have to say that my greatest love affair of all is between me and the thing that gets me out of bed every morning: coffee.

I can't remember the last time I woke up and didn't have a cup of coffee. In fact, if I haven't indulged by about 10 a.m., my body fights back with a nasty headache and a one-track train of thought heading straight to Starbucks. It is a classic love affair: the want, the need, and the dependability. Oh, and it's very expensive, of course.

I often find myself wondering why so many of us are so addicted to coffee. I'm not really sure exactly when I fell in so deep, personally. I remember drinking my first cup around the age of twelve, but it wasn't until later in life that I truly couldn't live without it. I decided to do some research to figure out why I literally cannot skip a trip to the coffee shop in the morning.

Initially, I obviously knew it was because of the caffeine, but there are many things in life that are full of caffeine, and none of them seem to satisfy me the way coffee does. According to an article in Business Insider, "Many of us are addicted to coffee for reasons that go beyond aroma and taste...the caffeine in coffee taps into the brain's dopamine stores, mimicking euphoric effects."

It's kind of like when people say chocolate makes you happy because it taps into parts of the brain that respond similarly to when one is in love. Coffee does that for me, and coffee does that for many people. Specifically, the 400 million people that consume coffee in a single day. Many of us are in too deep; past the point of return.

Here's the thing though, my love affair for coffee will never end. It may be expensive, and it may not be the healthiest life choice, but it is a true love of mine. Many people say, "How can you drink that many cups of coffee?" or "Wow, if I drank that much coffee I'd be bouncing off the walls," to which I respond, "It is a true skill."

For those of us that are in a deep love affair with coffee, nothing is more annoying than being judged for our coffee consumption. We don't choose the coffee life, the coffee life chooses us. Therefore, my love affair with coffee will continue to grow, and I will continue to irresponsibly budget my money specifically around a three dollar cup of coffee every morning. You can't fight true love.

And to anyone judging coffee addicts, everyone has their own "coffee," even if it's not actually coffee.