The Badger Herald

OPINION & EDITORIAL

A second drinking scene

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Also by Lindsay Mosher:

Bucky says vote (October 25, 2004)
Going that extra 26.2 miles (October 18, 2004)
Behind a 'horrible' fixation (October 7, 2004)
Technology takes odiferous route (September 27, 2004)

by Lindsay Mosher

Monday, September 20, 2004

Frappuccino, cappuccino, latte or house blend. Mocha, vanilla, caramel. Warm, cold, black or cream. When going back to bed is not an option, they all do the trick.

It is 9 a.m. and your faithful alarm begins to blare that ever so obnoxious wake-up call. You proceed to hit snooze four or five times until you realize you have no other option but to roll out of bed and get to discussion because you have already used your one allowed absence and it is only the third week of school.

You have a headache, you are tired and right now class is the last place you want to go. So it seems, like a great many of students, you are going to need more than just a notebook and a pen to be prepared for class. It is that cup of coffee that is really going to get you there.

There is no question that college students do not get the recommended eight hours of sleep a night. Blame it on whatever you wish, be it partying too hard or studying too late. This lack of sleep leads to a growing dependency on caffeine for badger students.

Coffees, sodas, Moovitz and NoDoz have evolved into a staple of college survival. Styrofoam cups have become the norm in the libraries, classrooms and all across campus. So it is no wonder Starbucks has grown at exponential rates in recent years and local coffee brewers are showing up on every corner.

According to the British Coffee Association, the United States is the worlds largest consumer of coffee, importing about 2.5 million pounds annually, which equates to roughly two cups a person per day, and you better bet college students make up a good part of the clientele.

A cup of coffee is the procrastinator’s best friend and a constant companion to the early riser and the night owl alike.

What is writing a fifteen-page paper at 11 p.m. due the next day? What is studying for a mid-term for a class that you have not done any of the reading for? The infamous all-nighter — a part of most college students’ vocabulary.

But it is the coffee by your side that will pull you through and keep you awake into the wee hours of the next day.

It seems that what was once known as a morning cup of coffee has grown into a second college drinking scene.

Whether we are fighting a hangover or battling the ghost of procrastination, the drink of choice for overworked and severely underpaid (if paid at all) college students is coffee.

While on Friday and Saturday nights you can find Wisconsin students at the bar, the week presents a change of trend. We switch from shots of tequila to shots of espresso, from brewskies to brew.

We turn in beer mugs for coffee mugs and Brats and Kollege Klub for Starbucks and Steep & Brew. Late nights at the bar are exchanged with late nights at the library.

On a campus full of studious students burning the candle at both ends to balance both work and play, caffeine seems to be the only answer. Whether you love it or you hate it, you drink it.

And, as much as we love our beer on the weekends, it is our daily dose of coffee that gets us there.

Lindsay Mosher (lmosher@badgerherald.com) is a sophomore intending to major in journalism.