I remember the very first cigarette I had. I was 14 years old and taking a walk with my best friends, around our suburb plan. One of us presented a pack of cigarettes and we ducked into the neighbor’s bushes and all started to smoke. We commented how awful the smoke smelled and how dizzy the cigarettes made us, but I continued to puff away until I couldn’t stand it anymore. I put out the cigarette in the neighbor’s lawn with no more than half of it burned.
I didn’t start smoking regularly until college. With the frequent trips to the bar, cigarettes were around. Whether I started smoking to fit in, or just because my inhibitions were down, I don’t really know, but I eventually was up to a pack and a half a day of Newport 100’s. Even though cigarettes were fairly expensive, I could afford them on my meager part-time salary. This of course was before the cigarette tax was imposed, so most people could afford to spend the dollar or so it cost to buy the pack.
Now with cigarettes going for anywhere from $5 to $9 a pack, many people are trying to quit. I can’t imagine spending $40 a week on cigarettes. Although I don’t like overly intrusive government, the cigarette tax has motivated more people to quit, which I think is a good result.
There are many helpful tools that were not available when I quit, like readytoquit.com for instance. It may have been easier or quicker to quit had I had these tools. Want to know how I quit? You’ll have wait for tomorrow’s post.
