Lifestyle
People Who Can't Live Without Their Coffee In The Morning Know These Struggles Too Well

by Caroline Burke

There's no shame in being totally in love with coffee, even if it is kind of "basic" of you. People who can't live without their coffee in the morning are people, too, you know? And if it's what you need to get your day started on the right foot, then nothing should stand in your way. Coffee lovers everywhere know the struggles of such a love-hate relationship all too well: You can't live without your morning java, but it can also sometimes make your life a little bit more difficult than you'd like.

As a longtime devotee of all things caffeinated, I can personally say that the single worst way for me to start a day is to saunter into the kitchen, only to find that I am out of coffee beans. This is a blow to my day that is almost impossible to recover from, and I genuinely don't believe that this is a character flaw. After all, who could expect a person to go through an entire day, filled with errands and work nonsense, without a proper jolt of caffeine to kickstart them?

Coffee is life, period, end of story. But it's not always as simple as that. Here are seven classic struggles that coffee lovers know all too well.

01
When The Sound Of Your Alarm Actually Excites You
Giphy

When you're actually triggered to feel excited by the sound of your alarm clock, you know you're a coffee fiend. What's even worse is when you wake up an hour before your alarm is supposed to go off, because your body is so amped for coffee time, and you can't go back to sleep no matter how hard you try.

02
When The Barista Knows Your Order By Heart
Giphy

If you're a fan of grabbing coffee on the way to work, then you totally understand the slight embarrassment you feel when you get to the front of the line, and the barista already knows your order by heart — or you might feel a sense of pride. It could go either way, and I am not here to judge, girl.

03
When You View Your Day As "BC" And "AC"
Giphy

And no, there's nothing religious about it. "Before coffee" is a dark, ominous time, filled with cranky one-liners and occasional waves of self-pity.

"After coffee" is a magical place where even your most annoying co-worker can be endured, because you've got that caffeinated unicorn juice running through your veins.

04
When You Run Out Of Cream, And It Feels Like The World Is Over
Giphy

All coffee is not created equal. I can't stand sugar in my coffee, but I also can't live without a little dash of cream. When the ingredients that you need for your caffeine consumption are out of whack, then the entire experience can be thrown into limbo.

Maybe buying your cream in bulk seems a little dramatic, but if it guarantees you'll never end up without it again, it's totally worth it.

05
When You Forget To Eat Breakfast, Because You're Already Satisfied
Giphy

That moment when you totally forgot to eat breakfast, because slurping on that mug of coffee satisfied you so much you thought you were full — except you're not, and you need those nutrients, my friend!

06
When You Come Up With Excuses Throughout The Day To Get More Coffee
Giphy

Ain't no shame whatsoever in getting your caffeine fix at 2 p.m. to get you through the rest of the day. After all, according to a 2017 study published in the Journal of Nutrition, drinking two or three cups of coffee a day is actually good for your heart health, so rock on with that second (or third...or fourth...) order of the day.

07
When You Accidentally Have A Cup At Night
Giphy

OK, so this one can actually be brutal. I have been known to "accidentally" brew a pot of coffee at 6 p.m., simply because I was craving that bitter taste, and that warm fuzzy feeling. But, yeah, it's not ideal when that warm fuzzy feeling suddenly turns into a rollercoaster inside of your body that will not let you fall asleep.

The struggle is so real, but hey, you live and you learn, right?