By Maddy Lockwood, Assistant Features Editor
The beginning of any semester is tough with a lot of new adjustments: figuring out a schedule that you can manage, meeting new people and reconnecting with old friends. This semester I have found myself overwhelmed to say the least. As I am approaching the end of my fourth week of classes, I think I have finally found myself in a comfortable groove (a groove that involves my every waking moment being at an event or doing homework — but hey, I signed up for it, right?). I have found there is one thing keeping me going at this point: iced coffee!
I don’t mean it from a caffeine perspective either — I love my daily caramel iced coffee with my entire being. At the beginning of the semester, I realized that buying coffee every day was not going to be good for my wallet, and, frankly, I have found that I am too particular about my iced coffee to allow anyone else try and make it without becoming absolutely enraged (an unacceptable amount of anger, to be completely honest).
My perfect coffee routine, ratio and ingredients required me to make some horrendous cups of coffee before figuring out the perfect mixture. “What’s the secret?” you might be asking. Well, I’ll never tell… just kidding! (Why would I write this article just to not tell you?) I don’t put ice in my iced coffee. Weird, right? Every night after I finish my homework, put some dishes away, shower — all the good night routine things — I turn on my Keurig and make my coffee. The perfect way to end my night, making 18 ounces of hot, black coffee! I pull out my oversized Baby Yoda coffee mug, place her right on the base of my Keurig and put her on the 10-ounce setting. I walk away for about five minutes, come back and click the eight-ounce setting (using the same K-cup, but I don’t think you are really supposed to do that), then I walk away again to do one of my silly little activities. Finally, I go back to my Baby Yoda mug, proceed to very carefully pick up my very full mug and place it in the fridge. Then my favorite part of the process: I get to go to sleep!
In the morning, I wake up, open the fridge and grab my favorite Starbucks cup. I proceed to transfer the coffee between the cups, where I always spill at least a third of it on my arm or the counter, a routine that usually leaves the perfect amount of room for my favorite caramel coffee creamer. It's perfect! Never have I ever had anything better.
While this sounds completely trivial and unimportant, it is genuinely my absolute favorite part of my day. Lately, in my chaotic and frequently overwhelming life, I have been trying to stay on the bright side;, frankly, I have never known a better way to get through a rough time. While it may be cliché, it truly is the little things in life that get you through the day. It’s nice to have big and exciting things to look forward to, but those things don’t pull you through the last three pages of a paper when you are exhausted: the idea of getting to hang out with my roommates after or going on a walk after does. So maybe I don’t want to go to my third 8 a.m. of the week, but I do want to have my iced coffee on my walk there. It’s impractical to always be happy or find the good in hard times, but at least try to find your own version of iced coffee. Find your own sunshine.