My first coffee at 37

I’m 37 years old and have never drank coffee. I’ve tasted it once or twice as the real thing, and love decaf. But straight coffee? Up till this weekend I hadn’t had a cup of it, ever. I’ve avoided caffeine almost entirely throughout my adult life.

Alright, this is probably an absolute eye roll moment for most of you. I live in the Inland Northwest, coffee shops line every corner. It’s a right of passive to be a coffee snop in these lands. But I’ve just not participated. Part of it was due to my childhood, growing up without eating meat or coffee and the like, and generally being stubborn about it. As an adult I have no qualms with caffeine, but figured I was fine without it. I usually sleep ok, can nap, or have enough energy to get through the day.

But this weekend my wife and I had to travel to Seattle and return on back-to-back days, a nearly ten hour roundtrip.

Now, I need to explain driving. I don’t drive well. The movement of the car puts me right to sleep. It’s a constant fight to stay awake for any distance past an hour. It doesn’t matter if I slept well the night before, put me in a car and I just want to rest.

Gum, lots of water, and snacking have been my tricks to stay awake. Sometimes I’ll even stop and jog to become more alert.

Bottom line? I get sleepy while driving. Thankfully I’ve always been able to stop before anything dangerous happened, but it’s been an annoyance that I can’t just drive for hours on end. Since getting married it hasn’t been a problem. My wife and I just trade off driving.

But since she broke her foot a few weeks ago driving is off the table for now. So I knew I’d have to be alert and push through.

So I had my first cup of coffee.

It was a surreal experience.

Both there and back I didn’t even feel sleepy or drowsy. I was tired, and knew I could sleep if I wanted, but there was no danger of nodding off.

I felt safe, and felt like I was able to tackle the task that mattered to us, getting to a place and back in a short period of time. So yeah, I’m going to drink coffee on my next big trip.