I could sit here and list to you all the side effects of smoking that you see if the commercials with the lady with the voice box and the scarf to cover her scars or the old man with an oxygen mask on, where they would tell you that COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) , Emphysema, Chronic Bronchitis, Stroke, Blindness, Erectile dysfunction, Diabetes, Ectopic Pregnancies, Heart Disease, Asthma, Lung Cancer along with about 10 other types of Cancer as well and most importantly even DEATH were common among people. And yes while those are all crazy diseases I don't think they seem to bother people as much as they should no one ever thinks it's going to be them, until it is.

The real things that get to people are things that are going to affect them currently or in the near future. So yeah, Cancer is pretty fricken scary but statistics are even scarier. How about the fact that 1 in 5 deaths in the U.S. is smoking related, or that children whose parents smoke are twice as likely to start smoking between the ages of 13 and 21. Or that each cigarette smoked reduces a life by about 11 minutes, Now while all these facts are maybe a little more scary than the side effects in tiny print on the bottom of your pack it's not as scary as the real side effects. Now I know most of the people who are reading this are probably still young, unmarried, no kids but there's a future you need to think about. Do you love anyone right now? Would you want to marry them? Well you decrease your chances of even reaching your wedding day by smoking. Or let's say you do get married do you want children? Yes, well smoking decreases your chances of conceiving in both men and woman. But by some chance you have children, how about their weddings? Don't you want to walk your daughter down the aisle or be there to bustle up her gown before she walks out, or dance with your son one day at his wedding or give a toast on how much of a pain he was growing up? There's more to life than the now.

I've lost so many people I love because of cancer, because of smoking. My papi was my whole world he was the only guy I loved even more than my dad or step dad (sorry guys). He was my best friend, he showed me M.A.S.H and Emergency and we'd play pranks on everyone, he'd drive me around in his Corvette that he told me one day would be mine. It's been 9 years since he left this world physically but I still feel him all around me. But he was a smoker for as long as I've known him and his parents before him. He didn't get to see me at prom or graduate high school, he didn't get to help me pick out a college or judge my boyfriends. He won't get to see me graduate college or help me pick out my first apartment, he won't be able to crack a joke at my wedding or tell me how beautiful I look that day, he will never get to meet my children one day or see them grow up either. Smoking and cancer took him from me and I miss him more and more every day.

So I don't expect my article to make you change your whole life but maybe it'll make you put out that cigarette in your hand and think a little more in depth in your decision for at least today. You're someone's son or daughter or love or mom or dad, or bestfriend, you're someone that would be missed by someone somewhere, so don't make your desion to smoke make the people who love you deal with the real side effects.