Student story-Coffee, coffee, FHPW students love their caffeine

By Danielle Valliere

Caribou Coffee offers a somewhat hectic scene in the early morning.

A long line forms. People anxiously sway side to side. They order.

A nearly indescribable look of satisfaction comes when the barista hands them their drinks over the counter, after a wait that was so worth it.

At Caribou Coffee, Flint Hills Publication Workshop students are thrown in with Kansas State University students and staff, all sharing the same mission: getting that caffeine.

“I’m not usually a coffee addict,” Kapaun Mt. Carmel student Bailey Buer said. “But I am here.”

Blue Valley Northwest student Conner Ahnen began her relationship with caffeine during elementary school. Pop was her first caffeine staple.

“As I got older, more homework was assigned, so caffeine became kind of necessary,” Ahnen said. “But pop was so sugary and I needed an extra kick of caffeine, so I turned to coffee.”

For years, her parents would drive her to obtain her brew. When she got her driver’s license, her coffee drinking increased.

“In the morning, I’ll always have it if it’s made,” Ahnen said. “If I don’t have it in the morning, I’ll have some in the afternoon or the evening. Pretty much any time I can find coffee, I’ll drink it.”

Ahnen was in the habit of drinking coffee about three or four days a week before coming to the FHPW.

“Now, I have a routine in the morning. Wake up. Go to the Union. Then Caribou Coffee to get my coffee,” Ahnen said. “It’s a daily thing here.”

Both Ahnen and Kapaun Mt. Carmel student Bailey Buer said they notice that they are more focused after drinking coffee in the morning.

“I’m on the Kedzie Krier and I know that I need to be able to really focus right after breakfast, as soon as I go to class,” Buer said. “Before coffee, I’m like ‘I don’t really care and don’t want to do this at all.’ After, I’m a lot more motivated and focused on what I am doing.”

Danielle Valliere is a senior at Kapaun Mt. Carmel and a student in the advanced writing class at the Flint Hills Publication Workshop.