Sunday night is a night known to college students as “hurry to finished everything I was supposed to do by Monday morning but haven’t because of a week’s worth of procrastination” night. The absolute worst thing in the world is having to study on the weekend, so everything that needs to get done tends to be put off until Sunday between the hours of 1pm – 1am. This marathon study session tends to make you feel cramped, annoyed, and grumpy no matter how wonderful the weekend may have been. A few weeks ago, Rachel and I decided to beat the odds of this impending grumpiness by studying together somewhere fun, only to find two things 1) nobody was open or 2) nobody had room. Coffee shops, otherwise known as “the Christian bar”, the “hipster place to hang out”, an escape from the library, failed us. Those beautiful shops, filled with big leather chairs, sturdy tables, and life-sustaining coffee to stimulate your senses just enough to finish that dreaded 50 page chapter in your Med-Surg book, failed us.
Yet, did we give up? Did we fight our desire for procrastination by settling in a quiet, lonely place in the depressing prison known as the Meyer Library? No. We refused to believe there was no place for us that had the perfect balance of noise and solitude. We refused to admit defeat and accept the fact that caramel lattes and chi tea lattes would not be an option.
The result: driving around Springfield in desperate search of the perfect study stop. On our “Tour de Springfield Study Spots” we stopped at Hebrews Coffee, Mudhouse, Coffee Ethic, Heroes Coffee, Starbucks, The Dancing Mule, Panera, and finally the children’s section of Barnes and Noble. Hebrews Coffee, my study location of choice, was of course closed; it is a Christian-owed business and it’s always closed on Sundays. We decided to try somewhere new, so we went to the Dancing Mule, only to find that it had closed about 30 minutes before we had arrived. Mudhouse, the location of choice for the majority of college students, had no open tables. Heroes Coffee, a slightly less known coffee shop, was closed. We finally went to The Coffee Ethic, the uncomfortable coffee shop filled with INCREDIBLY hipster people, which yielded success for a brief amount of time. After a few hours of much needed productivity, we begrudgingly surrendered our highly desired table when our stomachs forced us to take a break. We then went to Panera with the reasonable thought that big tables and over-priced “healthy” food would be the perfect location to promote studying. However, after eating dinner, we only had 1 hour to work before we were forced out by the presence of mops and table cleaners; hardly enough time to accomplish more than a small chunk. We once again trekked across town to Starbucks. Apparently many other college students had the same idea because every single table was filled. Again.
We were at a loss. With no more ideas of possible coffee shops, we decided to expand our search. Krispy Kreme? No, too sticky. McDonald’s? No, too smelly. Taco Bell? Too greasy.We were faced with two choices: 1) go to Meyer Libary (UGHH!!!) or 2) go to one of our houses and try to be productive despite the desire to clean/organize our catastrophic messes.
As we started driving home, a light dawned on me. BARNES AND NOBLE! While similar to a library, an indwelling coffee shop provides the much needed background noise. It was perfect! We drove over to our saving grace to once again find NO TABLES! This study spot would not be taken from us. We let our creativity reign and found a miniature table in the children’s area: our home for the next 2 hours. It was happy, had the perfect noise level, and was close to an outlet. We had once again found success.
I had no idea what I was studying that night, so I can’t tell you what I learned. But I can tell you one thing: Never try to study in a coffee shop on a Sunday night. Although a fun adventure may result, productivity will not.
Singing Selah 
