Coffee — the essence of life. It is your best friend in the morning; it always helps you start your day. After sunset, if you still aren’t close to finishing what you’re working on, coffee will be by your side there, too.

Sure, most people tend to think that water is more vital for life. I guess technically that’s true, but to simply live is not enough. Coffee helps you to feel alive.

Most of us can’t find the time to eat breakfast, the most important meal of the day. It feeds our brains and gives us energy to help us set our pace for the day ahead.

If you miss breakfast, it’s like driving an old car in the winter without giving it the time it needs to warm up first. You won’t be performing the way you would have if you’d given yourself the opportunity to get ready.

Our last salvation is that hot, black water that’s enriched with energy and magical flavor to help you get moving — coffee.

Researchers discovered that participants who drank three to five cups of coffee per day had about a 65­percent­decreased chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease or dementia later on in life, according to Men’s Fitness.

As a college student, coffee can be your closest ally. Every day when you walk onto campus, you have the option to make the trek up to the Starbucks in Fresno State’s Henry Madden Library.

Sure, the lines can be bad, but the reward might help you forgive them for not staffing that extra cashier. The fact that Fresno State, a college with more than 23,000 students and faculty, only has one option for coffee is dumbfounding.

To service the needs of all of those people, they put in a tiny little Starbucks in the middle of a library, a place that is supposed to be utilized for studying and research rather than a hangout.

You can probably find coffee in the University Student Union, but why can’t the school build a full-sized coffee shop in a prominent place on campus?

Colleges are always riddled with endless construction, so why not build something the students would actually be excited about.

Students here don’t get excited when new phallic sculptures and nameplate signs at the college’s entrances are being built, but if you told them they’d be getting a full-service coffee shop, they’d be happy to deal with the noisy, eyesore construction.

I’m sure once Campus Pointe is finished construction, they’ll put in another Starbucks, but what about on the campus itself? Or more diverse coffee options?

Fresno City College has two small places on campus that serve coffee, but one block south is the Tower District. There’s a Starbucks, and better yet there’s also Cafe Corazón which has some of the best coffee in town.

Cafe Corazón roasts its coffee beans on site, and it’s a nice little hipster coffee joint you’ll be happy to return to. It actually has a coffee called Tweaker. High in caffeine, one smell of Tweaker will make you smile, and a cup will help get you through your day.

Students generally only have 15 minutes between classes. That’s not enough time to brave the lines that Starbucks has.

Plus, a full cafe experience would bring a feeling of belongingness to campus.

More food and drink options only serve to help colleges and the people in them. I’m not saying that Fresno State should pay to build a Cafe Corazón on campus.

I’m sure everyone would be satisfied by a second Starbucks, but a full-sized coffee shop of some sort is desperately needed.

This campus is too big for only a Starbucks-ette.