When you think of being addicted to caffeine, what comes to mind? Because when I think of coffee, I think of bright colors and the fresh start of a new day. With more energy drinks and Starbucks products on the market, it’s easy to take a stance on the after-effect of caffeine, or “caffeination” in my vocabulary.

I understand the negative stigma attached to being addicted to coffee—my mom has been addicted as long as I can remember. A couple mugs of it in the morning, a couple mugs of it in the early afternoon. Throughout my adolescence, she prohibited me from trying coffee in a vain attempt to save my own natural source of energy that she now lacks—and what did I do? I tried it anyway. I became addicted. I would say I wish I had listened, but I simply like it too much.

When I drink coffee in the morning, I transition from merely surviving the day to optimistically making the most of it. I become spontaneous, perceptive, and creative. I can appreciate the ice forming on the trees around me. I may feel like hiking Kennesaw Mountain or, heaven forbid, getting extra work done. I may read for pleasure and call old friends to catch up. Coffee gets my day going in a positive direction.

I’m surprised that I even drink coffee now, considering how horrible my first experience with it was. One elementary school day, I found an abandoned, room-temperature pot of it in the kitchen and timidly tried it, only to spit it back out directly into the sink. I vowed to myself that I would never try coffee again, so long as I may live. At that point in time, I thought I wanted to thank my mom for heroically trying to keep me away, but only because I didn’t understand how anybody could find pleasure in such a bitter taste anyway.

Nowadays, my caffeination regimen is a bit more sophisticated than drinking it at room temperature from the pot: empty four packets of Splenda into the mug, followed by the coffee and some Hazelnut Coffee-Mate, and your “Good Morning!” is waiting for you in a mug. I’ve begun collecting oversized coffee mugs, and in this season, nothing is more satisfying than gripping a warm cup of creamy coffee and watching the snow fall outside the window (the theoretical kind, since we’re in Georgia).

I’ve had a retail job in the mall for two years now, the kind where you stand in the front and act all smiley, and I can’t tell you how much coffee has helped my job. I began a routine of visiting Starbucks ten minutes before heading into work, and ordering an “Iced Venti Americano,” which is an intense blend of four shots of espresso with ice and water. Immediately upon swallowing the concoction, I was able to feel the burst of energy running through my veins and I became annoyingly friendly, much to my employers’ delight. I even promoted the credit card.

I realize excessive “caffeination” is not so great for the heart, so I’ve cut back from four shots of espresso to a mug or so per day, and my retail managers resent me for it. I’m now reluctant to even mention the credit card to the customers, and I do significantly smaller sales. It’s alright though, because I’ve realized that selling jeans is far from my life goal, so now it’s just a weekend job for some extra cash. They prefer me the “old way,” sporadically barking compliments out the front of the store to unknowing victims in cute outfits, Tourretes-style.

I’m satisfied drinking only a mug a day now, or even going without it for a day or two. When I drink coffee, it doesn’t have to be Starbucks; Consumer Reports gave McDonald’s Iced Coffee the award of best coffee, and Maxwell House tastes better to me anyway. Not to mention, those of us who are addicted to caffeine in our college years are unfortunately part of two desperate groups anyway: the poor college kids, and the hardcore coffee addicts. Basically, we need to save our sparse paychecks for the monstrous addiction that’ll hit full-force throughout middle age.

In twenty or so years, I may follow the typical coffee-addict’s pattern of becoming addicted to coffee and closing myself off from the world until I’ve had it, but for now, coffee is a warm way to get a lot done in a little bit of time, and it gives me ten minutes to myself that I can sit on the couch, under a blanket, looking out the window and thinking of everything I can accomplish today.