Alexander Chung
Ms. Nichole Wilson
AP English Literature and Composition
15 January 2016
When the Abyss is Dark Roast
I am a geek. A nerd. A connoisseur of science and technology. I've spent hours sailing through the internet reading articles about the latest coming in from labs and workshops. Tweaking my computer is a daily joy. I've spent just as much time modding video games as I've had playing them. Despite all this, I've had almost no genuine research experience.
So I volunteered at a lab. It was time for the biweekly meeting at the research lab, and as a volunteer, I attended to try to learn all that I could. Unfortunately, I was a few years behind the professional college-educated researchers, so I sat in a little corner at the table, staring out the window and trying my best not to make eye contact.
The researchers arrayed themselves at the end of the table; chatting amicably about the nothing in particular that coworkers always talk about. They were passing out the coffee when one of the technicians asked me, "Alex, would you like some coffee?"
Would I? I thought turning my head. It looks like it has a lot of sugar and I am on a diet, but it's been so long. No! Think about waistline!
Do I even like coffee? To be honest, it might have always been the cream and sugar. Black coffee is terrible ninety-nine percent of the time, but the one percent is really good. Wait. Why am I even questioning this? It's a cup of coffee, not a speech to the UN assembly!
The technician looked down at the pot and adjusted her grip.
The people here always talk about how amazing coffee is. There's a coffee machine in the office all the researchers gather around. Whenever I walk in the morning, everybody already has a cup. I hear our project director drinks two pots a day and she frequently brings up how it helps her stay focused. Maybe it's why all these people can do all that they do. It's never done much for me though.
I felt my brain short circuit for a moment.
If I don't like the taste or the effects, why do I even drink the stuff? I brew a pot on a semi-regular basis, but it's more a habit than a desire. So really, I don't have a reason to like it.
My eyes unfocused as the sun hit my face, until I didn't see anything at all; alone with my thoughts.
Why coffee anyway, why not tea? Coffee and tea, coffee and tea. The two most common beverages in the world. After America threw off its colonial yoke and had the most epic tea party ever, the US of A became a coffee culture partly out of spite for old Great Britain. As an American, it's my solemn duty to drink coffee just for that 250 year old kerfuffle.
Coffee's got other implications beyond my pride as a member of the Greatest Country on Earth. In my long expeditions through the internet, I've heard my fellow geeks talk about how that magical elixir solves all problems. Coding? Coffee. Gaming Marathon? Coffee. Bored? Coffee. To be a geek is to be a coffee drinker.
So what is coffee beyond bitter bean water soup? Intelligentsia: from the coffee houses of the Enlightenment to its ubiquity in Silicon Valley, coffee is the drink of the thinking man. Not just the thinking man, but the stimulating effect is now associated with early risers and its now also become the drink of the working man. Intellect and industry, could there be any more attractive values to an ambitious young man? Maybe that was why I drank coffee, to take on the superficial trappings of values that I desired.
So, do I even like coffee?
Not really, I just think I should.
What would I be without coffee?
My own man, free of a stereotype of my own making.
"Alex?"
"Yes?"
"Coffee?"
"No thanks."
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