I get it, every adult needs a break from work, parenthood, or even life, but at the point where a "break" becomes a regular phenomenon, when is enough actually enough? A great portion of society has been exposed to the poison that fills your beloved cigarettes, whether it be through media influence or from being in the vicinity of a smoker. Personally, I've been around the poisoning aroma of cigarettes for a significant chunk of my adolescence and a small part of my adulthood, and just like most of you, my experiences are not happily ever after.

The intent of this article is not to inform you on what you already know, but to go beyond the physicality of cigarette smoking and induce you to visualize your life with and without smoking. First of all, imagine a world where children didn't have to go to school wreaking of second hand smoke; or where they didn't have to worry about what happens in the commercials happening to their parents. We know the reality of smoking, what it does to our bodies, and the risks of second hand smoke but who thinks about more than that? I have to ask- when you put your "break" up to your mouth and inhale, do you actually think about what its doing to your body? How about your family? Do you think about your daughters, sons, nieces, and nephews being influenced at all by your choices? What about the actuality of cancer, or suffering from COPD? The risks go beyond health, they go beyond just affecting you- they affect your children, your grandchildren, your friends, family, MORE than just your life. Just because the effects of smoking are delayed, does not mean that they do not exist.

My 17th birthday was not spent as a celebration of my birth, it was spent in the hospice unit with my grandfather who was losing his battle to the long term consequences of religious smoking. I share a birthday with my grandmother, who also had dedicated the special day to her husband, my grandfather, in the hospital. Smoking cigarettes goes far beyond just your health, or your money- it takes the good out of things like birthdays, weddings, proms. How did you let your habits begin to affect and take what should be good, away from someone? Why did I have to decide that there was no other way I would have rather spent my birthday than with my terminal grandfather, when there were a million ways I would have liked to spend my birthday?

All I ask is that the next time you light a cigarette and put it up to your mouth, think about the future; think about the world without you, when you could be there. Your daughters shouldn't have to worry about who will walk them down the aisle on their wedding day because their dad is too sick, or about someone who will miss the birth of their child due to passing away from something that could have been avoided. I shouldn't have a tattoo in remembrance of my Grandpa, but I do, because he's not here anymore. Just because you think it won't happen to you, doesn't mean you're right. There are things you will miss, and things that will not be the same without you. Please, be willing to put the effort in to save yourself and your loved ones from the consequences of your habit. Please think about more than just yourself.