My mom would always say to me and my siblings “Stay away from anything that has high caffeine because the side effects are something else” She said this to us when my younger sister took an overdose of her cough syrup because she said it tasted nice and then there is a high level of caffeine in every cough syrup. The side effects she got that day were something else, at first it was scary but when she felt better and we started talking about it, it appeared very funny.

I started taking coffee during my University days. I love reading and also attending night classes. There are different kinds of students and I am one of those students who tend to assimilate more at night I do not like reading at home because I will get distracted by my bed. So I was always going for night classes, where I read alongside some of my colleagues in school.

Most times, we get coffee just so we can stay awake and read more. This was helpful because I could stay awake for hours and I would be able to read without dosing off or even feeling sleepy. One certain time when my mom found out about this ritual of mine, where I take coffee she told me to stop as I was too young. Well, I needed it and it helped me a lot. I tried my best not to abuse it to avoid excess caffeine.

On this day, we were called to my professor’s office, who is my project supervisor for my final year. It was less than a week before my project defense where I got to talk about the practical work in which I had carried out and the result. The reason he called us was to tell us about our project result which we submitted to him, turns out he had misplaced my result and decided to change my research topic.

At first, I was shocked because this would require me to carry out another analysis and it takes a lot of time to do this analysis I will also need to write a new research work and all these will be done in less than 2 weeks because my defense was just around the corner. I tried to explain to him that the last one I did took me 3 weeks to do everything and this was so sudden. He didn’t hear me out and only said that my Final year result was in my hands.

I knew I had a lot of work to do and I had to spend days and nights working so I could get everything in line for my defense. I bought lots of coffee so I could prevent myself from sleeping when I needed to work. I will take coffee in the morning and also take it in the evening. I was taking more coffee because I just needed to finish my workload. It was helpful because I would go to the laboratory and carry out lots of practical work and then at night, I prepare the paperwork.

On this final day, I made myself some coffee that morning and I was heading to the laboratory to finish my practical work so I could just get the final results of the microorganism I was working on. I got to the laboratory and I was lightheaded. I felt exhausted and at one point, I felt as though I had taken some alcohol. I just sat down and I was staring into space because I couldn’t understand what was in front of me.

My friend noticed and had to take me to the school clinic, that was when the doctor in charge said I had taken excess caffeine he gave me water, and told me to lay down, even as I laid down I felt restless, my friend was worried but he told her I would get over it soon due to the ORS (Oral rehydration Solution) he has given to me.

It took a long time to get back myself Alas, I felt better and to date, I have tried to cut down on my coffee intake and try not to abuse it no matter the workload I have.

_{All images used are mine except otherwise stated}

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