Like most teenagers these days, I am addicted to energy drinks. There is nothing better than an ice cold energy drink, preferably blue flavored. Now, I know that consuming 200 mg of caffeine everyday can’t possibly be good for me. It could lead to heart failure or something like that. But, once you start, it’s really hard to stop. Especially being a high school student who already runs low on energy. 

Nonetheless, I blame NewsPro for my newfound addiction. It all started back in April when I tried a Red Bull at a volleyball tournament for the first time. I had thought to myself that it was a lot better than I originally thought Red Bulls would be. And when I told one of my fellow reporters, Katrina, she had the idea that we try all of the Red Bull flavors and rank them (side note: this article never actually got written, but the coconut berry Red Bull is obviously the best). 

So everyday, we brought a different Red Bull to school and tried it. Trying the Red Bull of the day slowly became the highlight of my day. The thing that kept me going through my first two periods. I was also prone to falling asleep in class, so the Red Bull literally got me through the whole day. 

Because I had grown to love Red Bulls, I wasn’t going to let our running out of flavors stop me from having one everyday. So, I continued to have one daily. This went on for a couple weeks. However, as they started to become an integral part of my day, I also started to realize just how bad for you they probably were. I tried to drink them less and less, having one every few days instead of every day. 

I was making progress, until I discovered one of the greatest things ever invented: sugar-free energy drinks. The same 200 mg of caffeine I needed, without the 100 calories and 30 grams of sugar. There were so many different brands and flavors out there to try. I made it my mission to try as many flavors as I could. This led to me going back to my one energy drink a day. I knew that consuming 200 mg every day still couldn’t be amazing for me, but it was easy to ignore that fact with “sugar-free” drinks. 

The peak of my addiction was over the summer and I’m proud to say that I no longer have one every single day. However, I’m probably averaging about .71 energy drinks a day, which still isn’t amazing for my heart. Nonetheless, no amount of warnings will stop me from enjoying my holy grail.