Thank You Caffeine

I am thankful for all things caffeinated — coffee, tea, soda, energy drinks, caffeine pills. I get it, we’re all stressed uni students substituting caffeine for sleep. I’m not going to lie, part of the reason why I’m thankful for caffeine is because without caffeine I wouldn’t be a functioning person. So thank you caffeine for giving me the motivation to not sleep through first period, for giving me just enough energy to do webassign, for jump starting my brain to awakeness. I’m thankful for caffeine because of the jolt of alertness caffeine sends through me. In junior year, I started my tradition of buying disgustingly sweet coffee from Einstein’s or Espresso Royale before any particularly hard exams. I didn’t drink coffee because I needed it to stay awake, instead I liked how coffee made me feel. I liked the hyperactivity. I liked how coffee made me tap my fingers quickly. I used to joke that I wasn’t funny but some unholy combination of sleep deprivation and caffeine made me funny. Sometimes when I drink coffee, I surprise myself — sometimes in a good way, sometimes in a bad way. 

I don’t know where this quote from or where I heard first say it but years ago told me that, “Sleep was like little slices of death.” And that quote resonated with me, partially because the metaphor intrigued me, and partially because I could relate to it. I’m not thankful to caffeine itself. Rather, I’m thankful to caffeine because I hated sleep. When I was a kid, I used to hate nap time. Why would I want to close my eyes and sleep when I could just spend another hour playing around. I wanted to spend every minute of every day doing something. Now a days, I’m a little more worn down but my hatred of sleep still burns with the same intensity. Why sleep when you can grind out a few more pages of an essay? Why sleep when you can study just a little more for a test. I guess I started to prioritize grades over sleep and caffeine allowed me to do that. But my hatred of sleep runs deeper than that. 

Have you ever gotten home super tired then you spend all your time doing homework? And by the time you finished all of your work, it’s already dark outside? That’s happened to me multiple times and I’m always end the day feeling super frustrated. At the end of those types of days, I’m angry because I wanted a few hours of the to be devoted solely to solely me. I wanted time to relax or binge watch shows. I felt like sleep was stealing hours of the day from me. So when I’m feeling particularly rebellious on those nights, I’ll drink another cup of coffee and stay up a few hours longer. In some ways, drinking coffee felt like an act of rebellion. I refused to let my life be consumed by work, so I’ll make more time in the day for me. I’ll stay up a few more hours to watch cat videos on youtube or read one more chapter of a novel.

But now, even if somehow science eliminated my body’s need for sleep, I think I’ll still continue to drink my daily for coffee. I’m thankful for coffee, because drinking a cup of coffee has become a calming morning ritual to me. There’s something calming about scooping out fresh coffee grounds and smelling their rich and familiar scent. I’m comforted by the familiarity of the sound of boiling water being poured through the filter. The heat on my fingers from gripping a cup of fresh hot coffee calms me. I’ve made coffee so many times, that my body goes on auto-pilot. I could make coffee in my sleep. The routines of making coffee has engraved itself onto my schedule to the point where I can’t imagine waking up on a weekday morning and not making coffee.

Champaign and Urbana People

Have you ever met someone and just immediately got a gut feeling that they’re an Urbana person or a Champaign person? (And of course, there are the undergrad students who don’t seem to fit in any of these bubbles). It’s happened to me a few times. I don’t remember where I was or who I was talking to (perhaps at a friend’s birthday party?) when someone began talking about bats in Champaign Urbana. Apparently, someone was keeping track of the bats that visited their backyard. And then a friend of mine remarked, “That’s such an Urbana thing to do.” Factually that statement doesn’t make sense, but as a person who has lived in Urbana her whole life, it makes sense to me. I don’t know it’s just harder for me to imagine some person from Champaign camping out in their backyard at midnight, squinting at some trees in hopes of catching a glimpse of a bat. Champaign and Urbana just have different characters and vibes— Is this making sense to you?

To fully address the issue of Champaign and Urbana people, I need to give you some historical context. So here’s my super brief summary of the history of Champaign and Urbana. Urbana was first settled in 1822 (And apparently first called Big Grove). In 1833, the town was officially named Urbana after another town in Ohio with the same name. As you probably vaguely recall from Mr. Butler’s class, the creation of Champaign is entwined with the Illinois Central Railroad. Basically, the tracks of the Chicago Branch of the Illinois Central Railroad were laid to the west of Urbana. And of course, cities tend to sprout up near train tracks. And so West Urbana was formed and grew increasingly separate from Urbana. In 1861, West Urbana changed officially changed its name to Champaign and you probably know how the rest of the story goes from here. Consequently, Champaign has always felt like the busier more economically developed city while Urbana gives off more historic and natural vibes. Champaign feels larger, louder, and bustling compared to Urbana and that difference can be seen in the stark differences between downtown Urbana and downtown Champaign. And, I guess, sometimes I extrapolate that fact to the people of Champaign-Urbana. 

When I think of Urbana, I think of green trees. I don’t know why but my mind just jumps to that association. I also think of cobblestone streets and the sound your car makes when they drive over them. The historical touch the cobblestone streets bring just screams Urbana. And maybe it’s just me, but it’s hard for me to picture a quiet cobblestone streets with a bunch of green trees on the side of the road and a few squirrels running around in Champaign (Although, I’ll admit I’m saying this from a biased perspective — I spend most of my time in Urbana). To get a quick glimpse at the different vibes of Champaign and Urbana, just compare downtown Champaign and downtown Urbana. Downtown Urbana gives off a more historic feel — I vaguely remember sitting in the Courier Cafe once and thumbing through a pamphlet about the building that housed the Courier Cafe which apparently was built sometime in the 1800s, if I recall correctly. I associate downtown Urbana with the courthouse and the “dying” Lincoln Square Mall — which actually has some cool shops like the art coop and Common Ground Food Coop if you venture inside. In comparison, Marketplace Mall in Champaign is bustling and filled with shoppers. Downtown Champaign is just as busy and has less of a historic feel.

So I talked to this old law professor at the University of Illinois for the 2017 oral history project on refugees. He looked to be in his sixties, his hair was greying, his office was filled with pictures of his children (which he promptly showed to us after we exchanged greetings). He was a very blunt man — blunt almost to the point of rudeness. He cursed a lot but was also incredibly knowledgeable. He was the type of man who would be perfect for the oral history project except he’d probably scare the poor subbies who would have to interview him. Oh, and he absolutely hated Champaign’s government. I would say about 70% of the time he cursed, it was in reference to Champaign’s city council. I vaguely recall him saying that the Champaign City Council can go to hell. He talked about how the Champaign City Council tended to lean more Republican and were more resistant to Champaign becoming a sanctuary city than Urbana. Up to this point, all the differences between Champaign and Urbana felt pretty trivial and non consequential in my eyes. In some ways, while Champaign and Urbana have different characters, I always viewed them as dependent on each other — I always felt they would make the same choices. I guess, I didn’t realize how the differences in Champaign and Urbana could lead to two different city councils with opposing views on one issue. 

All in all, I’m glad to live in Champaign-Urbana and experience the culture in both Urbana and Champaign. I appreciate the hyphen in Champaign-Urbana.   

Sources used: https://champaignil.gov/about-champaign/history/