When I got my first job as an American teen, I remember being surprised by it as well. Everyone at the pharmacy I worked at did that, and some topped-up their soda by pouring in a can from the vending machine in the early afternoon. Not that I wasn't used to American soda drinking, but realizing how much of a habit it was for so many of my coworkers, was my first realization that nobody in the workforce was happy, and they were all just self-medicating with sugar and pre-diabetes.

My dear friend.

Please allow me to expose to you some horrors I have witnessed first hand, so that you may go into the world fully aware of the dread it holds and hides.

For there are things that should not be out there.

Like people that sleep - yes, sleep - with a bottle of Coca Cola by their bedstand and wake up during the night to drink from it. And that see as a proper waking ritual to unscrew the cap of the same bottle - or perhaps a fresh one - take a long swig from it, light a cigarette and smoke it as they put on their bedroom slippers.