Growing up in the suburbs, I rarely encountered large groups of people that weren't biologically related to me. The most people I ever saw at one given time was during one of those festivals to celebrate the founding of the town or whatever. Regardless, suburban life had me pretty sheltered from city life, where there were always people around and easily accessible.

One thing I hadn't really been around growing up was tobacco. Sure, I had friends whose parents smoked and I would smell it on their furniture second hand, but I was never around for the actual smoking of it. I was lucky, I guess, until I went to college.

I'm going to start off by saying that I am not here to shame anyone for their choices. Your life is yours and my life is mine. I don't appreciate people telling me what I shouldn't put in my body when I enjoy a piece of cake so I'm not going to tell anyone else not to put something in theirs, but there's something I need to say.

Please smoke in the designated smoking areas.

At my school, we have places around campus that are specifically labelled for people to smoke. They are located near buildings and surrounded by a lot of open air, and, some of them are really cool places with which to spend time.

Unfortunately, sometimes people don't like to smoke in these areas. Sometimes, people like to smoke while they are walking across campus.

Now, of course this isn't illegal as most of the streets on my campus are public, but I can't help but feel slightly annoyed when I'm carrying my heavy grocery bags back from the store and someone blows their cigarette smoke right in my face.

Now, I have it easy. I'm not allergic to cigarette smoke like my roommate is or have terrible asthma like my sister. Having smoke blown in my direction isn't going to land me in the hospital. However, the person who is smoking does not know this. That person could have caused unintentional problems for a random passerby who is not expecting to be so directly exposed to cigarette smoke.

Just like I don't try to shove my chocolate cake down other's throats, I hope that smokers will consider others when choosing a place to smoke. The smoking areas are all around campus and can be easily reached, so please, smoke in these places.

Maybe I am being irrational by requesting this, or maybe I am being too harsh on smokers who just don't have to time to wait around to finish their cigarettes in the smoking areas, but I'm hoping someone will back me up on this. All I'm asking for is a little considerations of others with your smoking habits.