It was 2010 at a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. After sneaking in a flask of cheap whiskey, I remember my tenth grade love bummed a smoke from some southern rose who had apparently drifted over the years. There we were, the slyest fifteen year olds with a Virginia Slim about a mile long grasped in between our index fingers. Trying to inhale, but more successfully holding the smoke in our mouths and spitting it out. I would assume that most everyone has at least tried a puff, but the demonizing persona a cigarette paints often steers many clear, for good reason. There is a society that has built a cig to be a representation of low class, whether a smoker smokes only while drinking or one who goes through a pack of Camel Menthols on the daily, the cigarette is ultimately frowned upon.

My first job at 17 was at a country club, one of the more elite in the area. While the bag room boys hid cigs behind the 9th tee and the waitstaff was summoned to the dumpsters, I saw many big honcho members got to smoke their cowboy killers on the veranda or in the men’s lounge. On my drive home, I would see that same brand cig, that some high-class lawyer had, being hung out the mouth of a man adorned with a “CHANGE PLEASE, NO HOME, DISABLED” sign on the Lee Highway median. Which made me question, maybe a cigarette holds something more than a health risk? Possibly the need to feel something, a slight buzz from a cigarette, may be one of the most humanizing feelings?

If the same man who gets to play golf after work everyday and the man who must hobble down the sidewalk for money have anything in common... well maybe it is to feel the slight sense of euphoria and relaxation a cigarette provides. The society of cigarette smokers hold a culture that bring CEOs and homeless men, artists and nurses, rednecks and rappers to one unifying body. One could say different brands and styles divide, but the simplicity of a smoke break does not discriminate against color, sexuality, religion, gender or economic standing.

There are not many social aspects in our world today that can unify everyone. We are fighting wars against discrimination and political correctness, but just maybe a cigarette may be something we overlook as an unifying element. The need to escape for a little, even within one’s head, is a feeling all humans desire. A cigarette symbolizes that quick relief from reality. When the smoke is lit, with each puff the less and less it matters who is there to join us, we all are just enjoying this legal high.

During a Marlboro 27s phase, my best friend and I decided a “celebratory cig” was in place after getting through the Washington D.C. DMV in under a hour thirty. We lit it right there outside a Jumbo Slice on 14th and we enjoyed our smoke. An obvious crackhead strutted our way, he was black and in his 50s. He asked for a light. We hesitantly said, "yes". He told us it was his 51st birthday and that he was feeling alive and a was a “young turkey”. Well this escalated to the point where the old, black man, who we suspected on drugs, had us yelling with him in the middle of the sidewalk, “I’M A YOUNG TURKEY”. The three of us: two rich bitch, white girls and this random character laughing our asses off talking complete nonsense. You could tell the foot traffic was taken back by the scenery we provided. All I remember thinking, cig in hand, was how much damn fun I was having. The unexpected human, for the moment, was our new unofficial friend due to him simply asking, “You lil’ ladies gotta smoke?”. Once the cigarette burnt out, we parted ways never to see “Young Turkey” again, but with a memory of complete joy and buffoonery.

I tell myself constantly, a career or a child is what will determine the end of this habit for me. I’ll drive in my car with a light blue pack of American Spirits. Sometimes, I feel free and badass, a Kate Moss of sorts. Other times, dirty and asking for death to take me prematurely. It is a habit that has opened a perspective of the world and one that will maybe deteriorate the chances of me being able to act out on these new insights. A catch 22. But whether one day, I give it up for good or it takes my health, I am appreciative of the view of society and humans it has provided for me.

While a cigarette may strip one’s health, it also strips away society’s boundaries set amongst each kind. A cigarette can create a conversation that may never occur before amongst two people, it can create a social atmosphere unseen before, overall it creates the sense of being a real human with no triumphs over one another. It stabilizes all, to realize that we have our vices and our tribulations but a need to feel a feeling. That of being just human.