It’s officially my 10th day without a cigarette, and I’m feeling pretty good about it. I no longer have to worry about REEKING like an ashtray, yellow hands, cigarette breath, a constant-“hacky”-cough, and spending $12-$15 per day on smokes.
I think I’ve kicked it for good this time. I’ve decided in my mind to give it all up, and that’s final.
With that said, I know there are several circumstances and situations that are huge triggers for me.
One of them is house parties. For some reason, It’s nearly impossible for me not to have a cigarette and a drink in my hand.
I can’t help but feel incredibly awkward to be at a party in someone’s home and not be drinking or smoking.
It’s awkward as fuck.
However, I think it’s more of a low-level social anxiety than anything else.
I’ve smoked cigarettes ever since I was about 14-15-years-old. When I was at that age, I only smoked maybe a pack a week because I wasn’t old enough to buy them from the store.
But once I was 19, you better believe I was smoking like a chimney.
One time, when I was about 21-22-years-old, I quit smoking for nearly a year. I went without drinking during that period as well, but I, unfortunately, went back to it.
I’m not sure why I get back into these old familiar deleterious routines.
I went without drinking and smoking for a long time, and it truly was a phenomenal choice.
Smoking is a very nasty habit. I’m not going to get into the health risks of smoking because those are boring and nobody wants to hear them.
The harsh truth is nobody cares about the possibility of cancer when they’re 70-years-old, except for 70-year-olds and people who are soon-to-be 70-years-old.
I’m going to talk about the real nitty-gritty-low-down shit that no one else tells you about smoking.
Cigarettes really are disgusting, man.
Imagine a group of people sitting around a table eating dinner together; there are five of them sitting there.
Let’s say two of them are cigarette smokers; both of the smokers get up from the table after excusing themselves, and they walk outside to have a smoke in front of the restaurant building (9 meters away to I might add).
It’s -5 degrees Celsius outside, but they’re huddled up shivering near the entrance while puffing away on their foul-smelling-shit-sticks; as the two smokers walk back inside, unbeknownst to them, they FUCKING REEK.
When those two people sit back down at the table, the smell of the cigarettes radiating off of their clothing and bodies is something, unlike the foulest body odor you could ever imagine.
The smell is practically intoxicating; it’s that bad.
And the fuckin’ hands, dog.
Cigarettes, after a certain amount of time, they turn your hands yellow, I swear to god.
They make a person look like an Oompa Loompa.
My hands were so yellow at one point that a girl I went to school with would call me an Oompa Loompa; it was straight up nasty.
And, I don’t know about you, but listening to myself cough incessantly is unbearable. Now, not every smoker gets this, but for me, when I’ve been smoking a lot of cigarettes, I have this constant tickle in the back of my throat.
It’s due to throat irritation and inflammation.
The part which is so bad about it is that it forces me to, unconsciously, do this strange forced cough where I’m mostly just itching my throat rather than coughing up phlegm from my lungs.
The result of this cough is horrifying.
It sounds like I’m trying to dislodge some cancerous chunk of skin from the inside of my throat by coughing.
It’s fucking nasty. So yeah, I’m done with that shit. You should quit too.
Or not, if you truly love smoking cigarettes, keep doing it.
Maybe, you’re not like me, and you can smoke a pack a day and barely even have a cough.
That isn’t me though. Smoking cigarettes make me a foul-smelling person with bad manners. With all that said, smoking a cigar while relaxing on a beach is a top-notch experience, so I’m not judging you as much as it seems like. After all, I used to smoke for a long time. Smoking is gross and bad for you, but I don’t actually regret doing it for all those years. It was kind of fun.