views on smoking
My views on smoking have changed a lot in the last couple of months.
I grew up in a smoke-free household. My parents didn’t smoke and neither did my brother or I. To be honest, I wasn’t even exposed to the peer pressure in school for smoking. I guess I was just hanging with the right people. In high school someone offered me to smoke pot once while his friends were there doin it. I said no and I was actually really uncomfortable because I was in high school sports and if I got caught just hanging out with them, I’d be kicked off the teams. I had family that smoke, mostly my dad’s side. I remember my dad would avoid going there for Christmas because almost everyone there DID smoke and the whole house would just be a smokey mess. We probably inhaled the majority of any 2nd hand smoke we’ll ever inhale in the rest of our lives (at least for my brother and I). I used to hate the smell of smoking too.
When I got to college I still hated the smell. I didn’t really have any friends that smoked either, still. I’m not saying smokers are bad people and I wouldn’t ever NOT be friends with someone because they smoked, but I just didn’t have any friends that did smoke.
These last few months though, I’ve been around way more smokers than non-smokers and it’s so weird to me. I used to hate the smell of smoke, but now when I’m outside with my smoker friends at bars, I don’t mind it. It probably depends on the kind of cigs they smoke though. I honestly can’t stand the smell of my friend David, well…his smokey smell anyways. Maybe it has something to do with the chemistry of the smoke and his own scent, but I do not like going in to hug him when he smells that way. Tim smells kind of bad when he comes back in from a smoke break, but his breath isn’t that bad. Then I know a few others who all of them smell bad when they smoke. It probably has to do with where the people smoke when they smoke, how much they smoke etc. Tim doesn’t smoke in his apartment, by choice, and his clothes smell clean and he only ever smells like smoke right after he’s had one.
Honestly, the same goes for smoking pot. I had very few friends in high school who did smoke it, but they never asked me to or tried to get me to, and I’m glad. Today, I know a few more people that do it on occasion, and have offered me to smoke, but I’ve said no and they let it go. I guess I’m glad I’m being more exposed to it now, at an older age and with older more mature people. Saying no back then, I probably would’ve had people saying oh come on you have to try it, or some other means of peer pressure. Today, not only am I stronger and better at saying no and am more confident in myself to NOT do it, but because mature adults are offering me a cig or offering me a hit, when I say no, they respect me and my choices and don’t push me.
I think that has helped change my views on smoking altogether. When I was younger, yes I thought cigs were bad, and I DID think a little less of people that smoked. It wasn’t that I thought they were bad people, I just thought it was sad or horrible that they were doing it because it could cut a life by 5,10, however many years, depending on how long it was done. in terms of pot, we grew up thinking it was absolutely horrible, just because of the penalties in school and whatnot. My parents also went from telling us that they never smoked (just to keep us from doing it) to "yea, I tried it once or twice and it just wasn’t for me."
I don’t think any less of anyone now, whether they smoke WHATEVER. Honestly, I love the smell of cigars, well at least the cigarillos or whatever, and wouldn’t mind trying. And sometimes when my friends offer me a cigarette, I’m tempted to say yes just to try because my curiosity is often quite high…the same goes for smoking pot…but at the same time…I think….all this time I’ve said no because I just plain don’t want to. I feel like if I gave in to that small bit of curiosity for this stuff that I would be giving up on myself. I’m afraid I’ll get hooked on smoking and I know how bad it is for you. I already have an oral fixation and I know that IS a part of the addiction. A part of me still wouldn’t mind trying pot just because…when I get older and have my own kids…I guess I just don’t want my kids turning around and saying "well you don’t know because you’ve never done it!" if I ever said anything to them about it.
I don’t know. I just think it’s interesting how my views of smoking have changed. I even enjoy the smell of smoke, if it’s just one or two cigs in the distance and not soaking up in my clothes. Is it an acquired smell? It’s just so interesting.
Ugh the smell of cigars makes me wanna puke, it’s the worst smell in the world to me. I also can’t stand the smell of cig smoke either, so happy my parents quit. Althouhg I always tell Joe that the smell of cig smoke on a cold winter night is the most comforting smell ever to me.
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