Hey Neil do you think smoking is gross?
People tell me it's gross all the time but I always thought they were just being squares.
If you truly think smoking is gross I'll stop
I thought smoking was brilliant. I loved smoking. I smoked from the age of 15 until I was about 33, and I smoked with enthusiasm and gusto. I liked that it made me feel smarter, I loved the buzz I got from it, I loved the social aspect of smoking, I barely noticed the smell, and felt that coughing up black tarry gunk from my lungs in the morning was absolutely worth it.
Then I moved to America, and smoking got more difficult and less fun because the UK brands I liked were harder to obtain and the American equivalents were different. Then, about a year after I moved, I got flu. I thought it was pneumonia, but the doctor explained cheerfully that it was influenza, the kind that kills people. My temperature was over 103, and my lungs didn't work. I couldn't breathe. And, on my way back from the trip to the doctors, gasping for air, I thought, If I keep smoking by the time I'm in my 60s I will feel like this all the time.
So I stopped. I couldn't smoke at the time -- I couldn't really breathe. So when I could breathe again, I didn't start smoking. That was almost 30 years ago. My lungs are pretty good these days, and it's been decades since I've coughed up black lung-gunk in the morning. I'm glad I made the decision I did, because I like breathing easily more than I like the buzz of smoking, or even the buzz of hanging out with the smokers.
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