Here's to you, my cup of coffee. My first hello in the morning, my boost getting me through the day. Sometimes I'll make you too sweet, other times you'll come out tasting downright bitter. The first sip can either go down nice and easy, or it'll burn my tongue so bad I won't taste any of the food I eat for lunch. There are so many different creams, sugars, and syrups, but underneath it all is just black coffee.

Coffee is a universal drink. People from all over the world drink coffee on the daily. I find it intriguing how we all live such diverse lives with unique values, experiences, and people, and yet, we all drink coffee. I think that coffee is a good symbol for human beings. We are a lot like coffee in the morning. There are options and ways to make the coffee, as we all have options and ways to go about our lives. You can add to your coffee to change its flavor, just as we add things like work, friends, and relationships into our lives to give it variation. We choose different mugs, cups or glasses to serve our coffee in, just as we all choose to live in distinctive communities and areas. But down to the core, it's just black coffee – just as we are all human beings.

No matter the day I'm having or the day I'm about to have, it starts with that single cup of Joe. I have a moment of uncertainty every day while having my coffee. I hold the hot cup in my cold hand and think of all the possibilities that could be today. What will happen? Will anything change? Will it just be an average day? Those questions circle around my mind as I sip from my cup. My life could completely change in a single moment – in a single day – and that day could be today. You never know what is going to be thrown at you or what challenges might come about when you wake up in the morning. I think there's something special about this because each day could be the start of something new. And it starts with coffee.

So cheers to you and cheers to us, because it is a good day and it is a good life. I hope your days are filled with new opportunities and experiences. Today might not have been your day, but that has nothing to do with tomorrow. I hold out for my good days because they will always outweigh the bad ones. The warmth of the coffee grazing my lips acts as a representation of my day just beginning. I am anxious to see where my days take me; which ones will be significant, who I will eventually share coffee with, where I will be drinking it, and how I will take it. Here's to you, my cup of coffee, for being there for all of life's moments.