I remember the first time I ever inhaled. I came out on the front steps of my high school, and there were some of my friends sitting there smoking Salem. I was dared to take a puff (that's a hit in oldspeak) without coughing. I was thirteen I could do anything! Then the pain hit at the back of my throat! For the next 20 years I wouldn't be able to taste or smell the same as that morning.

I remember the night I stopped smoking. I was in Coconut Grove, Miami on vacation. It hurt to breath. As I was reaching for another cigarette it occurred to me I might not be able to breath at all soon.... and for what?? I had a callous on my lip where the paper of the butt stuck to my skin. My teeth were yellow. My breath stank. My clothes stank. My home stank. The cost stopped me from having my vacation in a really cool place which I would have been able to easily afford  if I didn't set my money on fire. What bothered me was the I was paying Marlboro to kill me very slowly.

I made a decision! It was going to be life. I prayed it wasn't to late.

I stopped doing the things that I did while I smoked. I gave up bowling. I stopped drinking coffee. The worst times I had were after dinner and before bed. What I was told is most of the time what you think is a nicotine fit, really is your body asking for more air. Believe it or not, when you smoke you breath much more deeply than normal. So Just take a few deep breaths and its gone.

If you take a drag on a cigarette then place a tissue over your lips and blow the smoke though it, you will see a little of what you did to your lungs.

Jack