The smell of coffee lingers on me, my hair and my clothes at least five days a week when I finally get home. I work in a coffee shop three days a week for four to five hours at a time.

As the hours of work pass, the time to study does, too. I spend my time quizzing myself on historical dates while taking orders and giving change. Then I go home – only to drive up the street to a coffee shop to do homework since everywhere else is closed.

Being a college student in the 21st century means one must have Internet access at all times. Well, that sadly is not true for me.

When I am home, my Internet cuts out around 5 p.m. and doesn’t work again until after midnight. For the first part of my semester, I would come home and sleep until four in the morning just to get assignments done.

As time went on, I got tired and realized that was too much effort. So, instead, I now drive four blocks from my house to the nearest Starbucks just to do my homework.

Some may enjoy the smell of espresso daily. Others may find it a bit much to be at two coffee shops in less than two hours of each other. Even I find it extreme.

However, in my town, Starbucks is the best place to find Internet late at night. Sure it can be crowded and loud at times, but headphones and music help. Concentration and determination are the key to doing homework in public.

Some may think it’s weird that there are so many people doing work at Starbucks after 8 p.m., but I can say that there is always more than one person doing some type of work there.

I think that may be the reason for the decor and setting within. It’s calming and minimalist just like a library with an added bonus of food and drink.

With so few open places late at night to study, options are limited unless there are friends who don’t mind having you over at their place – staying up all night helping write papers and do assignments.

Truth be told, I have done this with one of my friends and the only thing it leads to is sleeping the entire next day after staying up all night simply to get the Internet to work.

From that point on, we decided Starbucks after work was the way to go. A lot of times, one of us has just gotten off work so only one of us has homework while the other is around to talk and help when need be – but that’s what makes it fun and worth it for me.

My friend works at a thrift store and we both attend different colleges so homework time is the really only time we get to see each other.

Since I work at a coffee shop, I often find myself listening and laughing with the baristas. I understand the frustrated looks on their faces when people order blended or complex drinks.

I watch the way baristas try to hold their smiles as customers question their products or even complain that the drink they get almost daily tastes different.

I feel for them because they deal with people of all ages who look at them and sometimes think that the baristas are going nowhere in their lives because they have been working there for the past five years.

I have sympathy when they get that one person who is not sure what drink they want but they won’t let the next customer be helped.

As they get asked questions on things they have no control over, I find it hard not to laugh because I know on the inside they are thinking, “I just work here. Please take it up with corporate and let me finish cleaning so I can go home.”

I am not the only person that use Starbucks as a study place, as many of my other friends do, too. It can be said that coffee brings people together and I can say it does, with family, friends and grades.