Remember that first time you lit up? Wow it was Horrible and the taste of it was terrible. So, after experiencing that First Cigarette and how it made us feel, Why in the world did we go for the second one? That first one should have been a Clue to us all.
I remember that day. I was in my garage and stole a cigarette from my aunt. I lit it up and when I inhaled I thought I was going to choke to death. Then Panic Mode set in; will they know? Could they smell it on me? My heart was Racing but, I took a second drag and again, the coughing started. I threw the cigarette away, went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth and gargled with Listerine. "I'll never do that again". Yeah, right. I just started Jr High and almost everyone was smoking. Fellow students would ask If I had a cig and I was happy to share. Still not feeling great about smoking I still continued and eventually there was less coughing until, I suppose, my body became used to this Invader. Back then we had ALL the signs and signals to Not Smoke but, we wanted to fit in, became a part of the 'social setting' and never looked back.
If I could go back in time to speak with my young self, we'd be having quite the conversation about the Right and Wrong Choices we'd make over the years and Smoking would be at the top of the list.
Do you remember your first time?
Remember that first one well. My lungs felt like they were on FIRE, and I coughed until I thought I was going to hork up a lung portion. BUT - there was that dopamine! So, a day or two later, I tried it again --- and there was that dopamine hit. Eventually, we had "micron filters" and "less tar and nicotine" brands, they added cough suppressants and throat coatings so we wouldn't notice the ill effects of what we were doing.
Little did I know that in the years to come that stinky, expensive, lung burning paper tube with tobacco would rule my life. In those days, we smoked EVERYWHERE. There were ashtrays in store dressing rooms, in our doctor's offices, in the buses and trains and planes. I often wonder now how many clothes were lost in those dressing rooms from burn holes?
When the Surgeon General came out with his report on the hazards, I was fully hooked and could not imagine living my stressful life without my "friend."
Oh, how I wish I had never started. Now the evil doers introduce "vaping" to hook a new generation on nicotine. And STILL it is allowed.
SHAME!
(getting down off my soapbox)
I was a freshman in college...boyfriend flunked out...bought a pack of Tareytons from the cig machine in the dorm. Think they were 50 cents/pack. All I can remember is that they helped me stop crying...I was hooked...Tareytons? pullease 
All the times I relapsed that FIRST cigarette after being abstinent was awful...not how I remembered AT ALL...but I had blown my quit, so carry on! NOW, I remember how awful it tasted and how AWFUL I felt having blown another quit...NEVER AGAIN NOT ONE PUFF EVER! NANOPE!!!!
YES - please I am talking about ME - NOT anyone else - I was 15yr old in the bathroom with the popular BAD grl in high school - tall white girl - dyed long blonde hair and skinny and beautiful - I was short and fat - olive skin - dark long hair - NATIVE AMERICAN - UNPOPULAR in high school - she ask if I wanted to smoke - I said yes and she lite the cig - passed to ME - I took it and the assistant principle came in - I had the cig in MY hand - BUSTED - so I received in school suspension - I smoked from that day 15yr to
age 54yr - 39 YEARS SUCKING ON DEATH and ONLY by MY Daddy God's grace and MY Lord Jesus sealing ME in MY Holy Spirit and asking Him to teach ME to pray in MY Lord Jesus name - I was given a COLD TURKEY QUIT on January 6, 2011 - HOORAY FOR JESUS - amen - thanks for SHARING yoir good news and asking ME to SHARE mine
In HIS love - I love you MY brother Ralph1955
