Florence King I D Rather Smoke Than Kiss Summary

Many smokers, like Sload, take their first puffs in college. Other students experiment with cigarettes in high school but start smoking heavily in college. Everyone I surveyed and interviewed is aware that smoking was responsible for the deaths of many people every year. They know it increased the risk of heart attack and stroke and adversely affects breathing and the lungs. And like smokers of any age, many college students are actively trying to quit. Mandie Sload knows that for or five cigarettes a day were four or five too many. She plans to quit someday. She understands that if she quits her breath will smell better;

Lizzie’s mother stated, “I am going to a smoking cessation group to help me stop smoking to help reduce Lizzie and her brother risk of wanting to smoke because I

A hand extends from outside the scene and holding a lit lighter out to her. As the camera pans out a teenage boy is holding out the lighter and she looks up at him with a look of utter shock, confusion, and what could be described as shame (see fig. 1). The ad ends with “Children of smokers are almost twice as likely to become smokers” (ClearWay Minnesota). It then returns to the mother and son as the two sits in silence on the front step. In this way, Clearway presents to us this narration of a family struggling with tobacco use.

John has not had any major illness until later in life when being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes at the age of 62, and suffering skin cancer on the face and ear. Neuropathy also has plagued John he is not able to walk his usual two miles daily. John started smoking at a young age and continued for years, smoking three packs a day in his prime. He quit smoking off and on for several years, he is happy to say the last cigarette to touch his lips has been 16 years. When asking him what made him quit for the final time oddly enough it was not for health reasons. When businesses would not let patrons smoke in their establishments he said, “To hell with you, I will show you whose boss!” therefore, he quit. John’s father died when he was nine months old from a brain tumor, his mother at the ripe old age of 87, from complications due to diabetes and Alzheimer’s.

In “Letting Go”, David Sedaris has let go of his mother. Sedaris’s mother was one of the main causes of his smoking. As “A few years later, we were sitting around the breakfast table and she invited me to take a puff. I did” (Sedaris 1). At a young age, Sedaris’s first experience with a cigarette began with his mother. His mother encouraged his smoking later in his twenties. “My mother, however, looked at the bright side. “Now I’ll know what to put in your Christmas stocking!” She put them in my Easter basket as well, entire cartons” (Sedaris 3) When Sedaris officially began smoking his mother supported this terrible habit by buying him cartons of cigarettes as gifts. After Sedaris’s mother found out she had cancer, she attempted

in order to sustain a healthier life style. This essay seeks to illustrate the impact of smoking on a

Smoking. A controversial, mindless activity to do in our health-conscious society today. We judge the loner and their values as we walk past them, sitting outside the restaurant to have a ‘quick fag’ whilst their friends continue to enjoy one another’s company inside the safety walls of the ‘smoke-free zone’. It’s known as an addiction. Or is it a disease? A deadly addiction, perhaps? A loss of self-respect, one’s values, responsibility. A disgusting and immature habit, only conducted by those who we think lesser of. Why can’t they control themselves? What is seriously so great about the taste, the smell, the feel, of the silent and patient killer that is tobacco?

There are people that abuse their “smoking privileges”. I personally hate smoking but as long as they don’t abuse their privileges on “smoking breaks” I would be okay with it. I can’t discriminate against anyone, because I know there are habits of my own that some people I’m sure hate as well.

Past History: Smokes ½ a pack of cigarettes per day (since she was a teenager)

In the short story of “Letting go” David Sedaris speaks about his addiction to smoking cigarettes. He mentions where it all started in the beginning of the story by him visiting the American tobacco plant near Durham, North Carolina near his hometown. There he learned how cigarettes were made and was also given a free pack to bring to his parents. During when he went to school smoking was permitted almost everywhere from schools in classrooms to hospitals in front of patients, he mentions how he remembered seeing ashtrays in grocery stores and in movie theatres which made him want to do the opposite of smoking.

They pressured her unto believing that smoking was cool and that she would fit in by smoking and that smoking with her friends would bring them closer and would enhance their friendship. (Mentor, October, 2011). Ms. Jeanette says that when she started smoking she would often cravings during the day and while in school and would always think about the different ways to where she could go smoke a cigarette. She says that smoking would ease her mind and made her feel calm and at ease like it was her escape to other things. (Mentor, October, 2011). As a teen her parents did smoke and she says that also influenced her as a teen and made her want to smoke as well. (Mentor, October, 2011). She says that as she began to become her own person as she grew older she then realized that smoking was not cool, and she should not have done it. She still does not realize how smoking makes her fit in and made her and her friends closer. (Mentor, October, 2011).

In life, there are many ways you can live, however, the manner in which you live is your choice. In most peoples’ lives, they want to leave this world and say that they were happy and enjoyed every single moment of it. People feel like if they lived a happy life, then that is all that matters. But what if life has more to do than just being happy, what if it was meant for you to change the world or the lives of others? If you changed the life of another person and made them happy, you made a difference. A happy life is a good one, but a meaningful life is fruitful.

Dr. David L. Katz, A clinical professor of public health, and director of the prevention research center at Yale University School of Medicine expresses his opinion on public smoking in the following passage.

Growing up in the East 90's smoking surreptitiously in their Chapin kilts, Ms. Topping and her friends would later hone their newly acquired smoking skills at places like Dorrian's Red Hand, Ryan's Daughter or Three Guys and chastise one another for unladylike gestures.

Tobacco; one of the most profitable products in history, an addictive substance, and a deadly killer. Smoking tobacco used to be a thing that was endorsed in American society. Now, with the new medical advances and knowledge, society has seen the side effects of smoking and how fatal it actually is. Teenagers have been one of the largest age groups that have been affected by smoking. After analyzing all possible reasons as to why teenagers would smoke while knowing it can affect their health, three possible reasons stuck out the most. Teenagers smoke despite knowing the health problems that originate from smoking because of peer pressure, an “invincibility” mentality, and seeing a role model or family member smoke.