The Teachings of a Cup of Coffee

I don't think I'll ever understand your addiction to coffee. This morning I had my first cup in what must have been at least a year. I took it black because I feel like that's how you usually drank it. From my first sip I was immediately reminded why I don't often drink the stuff.

I find it interesting that someone with as large a sweet tooth as yourself could like a drink so bitter, though I suppose one could argue the bitterness made all those sweets you enjoyed taste that much better.

Perhaps that's one of the secrets all you coffee fiends shared amongst yourselves. Though I may be just missing the obvious reason of the energy kick it gives. I don't know, I wasn't a follower of yours in that regard.

Choice of beverage aside however, (I never got the Diet Coke thing either, but I'll concede that preference on behalf of your diabetes) you did instill in me the foundations for becoming a respectable adult. In that respect I was a follower of yours. This was a task you had striven to accomplish in most of your students, I'm sure. I'm also fairly certain you achieved that goal time and again. I would like to think, however, that I gave you more trouble than the average brat that walked through your classroom doors, which, of course, made the outcome all the more rewarding.

Through the 9½ years I've known you, I've come to understand a little more about you. Most of this can be summed up by simply saying "you never stopped changing,". With the courage to always try something new (we all uttered a collective gasp when we first witnessed your use of the common instant messaging shorthand "LOL") you continually planted and replanted yourself in the midsts of younger generations; building and maintaining a strong relationship with the mere seedlings so you could guide them as they sprouted, budded and eventually bloomed. Creating a relationship through mutual understanding, it was an action you performed seemingly instinctively and those lives whom you've touched because of it were introduced to its importance.

I still don't get the coffee.