National Coffee Day was celebrated by many chain coffee shops and restaurants last week on Sept. 29, but for Brian Park, a math teacher at Moanalua High School, every day is Coffee Day. He’s known for consuming large amounts of coffee, and is never seen without his drink in hand. His preference for coffee is to take it bitter and strong.
“I have coffee at least five days a week, two cups a day,” Park said. “ I like my coffee plain, I always get it [with] no cream, no sugar.”
Park is a regular at McDonald’s, where he uses his app to get good deals on coffee. But sometimes when he’s feeling fun, he likes to switch up his order and get a sugar-free vanilla coffee.
With more than 120 students to teach, Park said the physical toll on the body can be taxing, so he credits his coffee consumption to helping him get through the school day.
“I get most of my energy from coffee, my students like to think that I’m really loud, but it’s partially because of my (Korean) ethnicity,” Park said with a laugh. “I like to think that my loudness is due to 70 percent of my ethnicity and 30 percent because of coffee.”
He commends coffee as something that improves his drive and helps him excel at being a good teacher for his students.
His students are aware of his coffee consumption and comment on his fixation on the popular drink.
“I think Mr. Park has an aggressive addiction to coffee,” Rylee Yasunaga said jokingly. “Mr. Park has a mini fridge (in his classroom) just for his coffee.”
Junior Akaysha Bell, “I once saw Mr. Park drink a large iced coffee, straight out of the bottle.”
Though Park is a passionate coffee drinker, he is aware that this could negatively affect his health in the future, but for now, he chooses to “live on the edge” and keep enjoying his daily Cup of Joe.
