Yesterday as I was walking into the grocery store a car stopped right by me in the parking lot and a girl asked if I had a cigarette.  I don't know if it was just a completely random chance that I was the closest person to her or if she singled me out because she thought I looked like someone who smoked.  I don't though, so I had to tell her, "No, sorry."

Smoking cigarettes is one vice I'm really glad I never picked up.  Aside from being super expensive, it really is pretty much the worst thing you can do to yourself health-wise.  I had to take some medical pathology classes in school where you pretty much have to read about a wide variety of terrible diseases, none of which you want to get.  Without fail almost every single one had an increased risk of getting or much worse symptoms associated with smoking cigarettes.  

Still, it wasn't always such an easy thing to avoid.  I feel like it used to be more prevalent than it is now.  There were always smoking and non-smoking sections in restaurants when I was young and there even used to be smoking sections on airplanes.  People would commonly smoke pretty much anywhere out in public.  All the cool action heroes in movies smoked.  There was a lot of pressure to do it, but I managed not to give in.  It probably helped my cause that my parents were pretty staunch non-smokers, so I wasn't exposed to it at home or anything.

I do remember walking home from school with some friends one time when I was in third or fourth grade and some kid we didn't know joined up with us and then all of a sudden he stopped short and lit up a cigarette and I thought it was the craziest thing I'd ever seen as did my friends.  I mean, an eight or nine year old kid smoking is pretty, um, not great.  But I found it absolutely mind-blowing at the time.  I did not become friends with that kid.  Honestly I'm not sure who he was.  I don't remember seeing him after that.  Maybe he dropped dead of lung cancer at the age of nine.

By the time I got to junior high, or I guess as they call it now, middle school, kids smoking cigarettes had become a much more common sight.  They'd all go to the park across the street from the school and smoke, which was apparently a pretty common thing at schools everywhere.  I don't know if it still is.  Hopefully less kids are smoking these days.  But back then there would be big packs of smokers in the park before and after school and during lunch breaks and stuff.  I remember sitting in a school assembly one time behind this kid who just absolutely reeked of cigarettes and I thought it was such a nasty smell.  I couldn't imagine what the heck the appeal was.  I'm sure there was a lot of peer pressure associated with it, but I really wasn't friends with the kids who smoked.  I don't suppose I was super cool in junior high, but that's really okay.  Peaking in junior high is not something I would advise anybody to aspire to.  

Honestly a lot of the smoker kids were kind of jerks to me so that probably helped me to develop a bias against smoking.  It really wasn't in college until I had friends who smoked cigarettes and I realized that doing so didn't automatically make you a horrible person.  The good thing about that is that my smoker friends were pretty respectful about me not smoking and I never felt peer pressured into it.  I mean, I did try smoking a few cigarettes here and there along the way mostly out of curiosity.  I'm assuming they're an acquired taste like coffee or beer, but every time I tried one I thought they tasted absolutely disgusting.  On top of that whatever sort of buzz I was supposed to be feeling from it didn't seem all that amazing to me.  It wasn't as fun as drinking beers or anything so it wasn't too hard for me to just not do it.

The only time I can think of that I sort of regretted not smoking cigarettes happened when I was in Biarritz, a beach resort area in France just before my 21st birthday.  It was a little like what happened yesterday in the parking lot except I was strolling down the beach and was stopped by an attractive young lady who wasn't wearing a top (they are much more relaxed about bathing suits or the lack of them over there).  She asked me if I had a light for her cigarette and I had to just say, "Um, no," and continue on my way.  If only I smoked cigarettes and carried a lighter with me I would have had a great opportunity to have a conversation with a pretty half-naked girl.  Oh well.  I guess when you weigh that alongside emphysema it probably all worked out for the best.