Smoking is pretty gross to me. Just the smell of cigarette smoke makes me feel nauseous and every time I see someone smoking, there is a brief moment of confusion during which I think, “People still do that?” Luckily none of my friends smoke and I’m not sure if I would still be friends with them if they did. But all year I noticed that there are a lot of people at my school who are smokers. I saw people in the parking lot every morning before school, standing in a circle, passing a cigarette around. On my walk to the bus after school, I would pass a small group who stood in the middle of the front lawn outside of school and smoked. There were others who were more discreet and smoked in the tiny crevice on the side of the school but it seemed like most of them didn’t care whether they got caught or not. There was a girl in my gym class who would smoke as we walked around the track even though we passed the teachers twice on every turn.
I never really understood why people till decide to start smoking wherein there are dipping alternatives for sale. I get that it is incredibly difficult to stop but starting even though you know all of the terrible risks involved just seems stupid. In health class this year my teacher showed us photos of cancers caused by smoking and second-hand smoke. We all looked in disgust at these awful pictures and were horrified that this could happen to us. Most of us signed pledges to not smoke and one girl made a promise in front of us to quit smoking and from what I was of her later that year, she kept this promise. I feel like schools are trying their best to show us the dangers of smoking but I feel like people just don’t care.
