Hello,

It’s me. I was wondering if after all these years you’d like to meet.

Nah, I’m just kidding, but you know what’s not a joke? Smoking.

Now before I get into the whole subject of smoking let me start with saying that I’m not one of those people that’s never smoked before and will sit here and condemn you for doing what you do. That’s not how I do things, so hopefully since you’re aware of that now I hope you’ve relaxed a little bit.

I’m not writing to lecture you, please know that. I want to feel like I’m having a conversation with you. Just talking about my experiences and hoping you keep them in mind for your future.

I know how you feel when you have that crave during the day. You just want to inhale and feel the buzz of the nicotine. It makes it even harder when something like seeing someone else smoke, watching a TV show or movie makes you have the crave and sometimes there’s nothing you can do about it.

You wanting to quit smoking is definitely a challenge. It will have to come to you in your own time just like anything else that you want to change

in your life.

What gave me the motivation to quit was a couple of things. One, I was honestly getting tired of hiding it from some people. But, at the same time, I didn’t want to tell anyone because knowing my friends, they wouldn't have been so gracious about it. Two, I was tired of waking up in the morning feeling like my lungs were about to collapse. Coming from someone who has bronchitis almost every year, It’s not a smart thing to do. Lastly, three, I did the research.

I just spent a few hours one day on Google just looking on what happens to smokers and what all of the side effects to smoking are. It’s not like I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I was doing the deed, but I guess I just didn’t take it seriously.

Now, I could tell you what I found out when I was doing the research but in all seriousness, I think you have a good idea of what could happen in the long run.

I would look around at my family and friends that I knew that smoked and think, “They smoke so much more than me and nothing’s wrong with them, I should be fine!” But then I came to thinking, "We’re all our own person." No one is the same at all; just because someone can chain smoke for their whole life and live to 90 doesn’t mean you or I will.

There are many types of smokers out there. People that smoke, at least, every 10 or so minutes (also known as chain smokers), then there are the average smokers who like to have one maybe every hour or two. Some people are night smokers and others smoke only when they're drinking.

For example, I was a big night smoker. It was my way of unwinding after a long day. Some people drink wine, some people play video games or other hobbies, but I smoked. What I got into that helped the crave at night was making a cup of tea instead. Just a plain bitter hot cup of tea, that I would just sip on while watching a show, playing video games or doing homework.

Now, that’s not going to be the case for many of you, but maybe getting another idea in your head will help you think more of better alternatives to relieve your stress. At the end of the day, though, smoking is not good for you at all. It might be a cute aesthetic in your Tumblr picture, but it’s something that could possibly give you health issues in the future.

So, what I want you to do is to just sit back and reflect for as long as you need.Think about how you’re feeling, what your financial situation is like (we both know that pack of cigs could’ve gone towards an extra tank of gas) but importantly how you’re doing mentally. I’m not saying everyone who smokes is mental in some way because that’s definitely not true but think about the stress that’s in your life and what alternatives you could do to prevent grabbing a cigarette.

Sincerely,

An ex-smoker