I believe in the power of drinking coffee on Wednesday. I am an avid coffee drinker however also a runner and the two do not go hand in hand. Throughout the off season in high school, I would drink it like water but the when the next season of track or cross country came, I have to drop the addiction and it is torturous.
During the fall of my sophomore year, however, my sister and I came up with a tradition that turned our running seasons into a happier time and the middle of our weeks blissful. Cross country races were typically on Tuesdays, making Tuesday the most scary, most stressful, and most physically exhausting day of the week. Therefore, we decided we needed something to look forward to at the end of the finish line–something to motivate us. The tradition became that on the way home from our race we would shuffle into Starbucks and get ourselves coffees to stick in the fridge. The next morning when we woke up, our race was over, and we had a delicious coffee waiting for us downstairs.
Every Wednesday became a day full of pure joy. The combination of the pre-race dread being lifted off our shoulders and the caffeine made us the happiest people walking the halls of our high school, and eventually this tradition grew into something more than just a post race reward. Coffee Wednesday is a weekly occurrence to this day because of the positive effects it has. All our peers know about it and many have even started to partake, of course sending us Snapchats of them celebrating the greatest day of the week. It is something so small, but it instantaneously brightens our week and it gives us something to look forward to. No one likes Monday, and Tuesday is still a ways away from Friday, but Coffee Wednesday is a shining ray of light right in the middle. The dreaded, “hump day” is now “COFFEE WEDNESDAY!!!”
I believe that everyone should find their own Coffee Wednesday. It is not the caffeine that makes us happy, it is the fact that it is Coffee Wednesday. It is built into our schedule to be happy on Wednesday. It does not have to be anything huge, as an iced coffee with skim milk and caramel swirl is on the surface very simple, but that simple coffee on Wednesday brings me absurd amounts of happiness. Find that midweek pick me up that is powerful enough to elevate your mood from the depth of pre-race dread to the peak of joy.