…I started smoking when I was 16
I started smoking for the first time when I was 16 years old. I got a job as a waitress and smokers got more breaks, so it only made sense that I smoke too! I quit smoking once when I turned 22, and was successful for about six months. I started sneaking a cigarette every once in a while on my college campus, and before I knew it I was smoking about a half a pack a day. In September of 2009 I began a get-out-of-debt program and it required me to budget every dime of income I had, and by creating a budget every month, I realized just how much I was spending on cigarettes and was shocked! I could make extra payments on credit cards, or buy a few more groceries, or do something a lot better with my money than burn it up in cigarettes. So, my original motivation to quit came from my finances. After starting an internship at Phoenix, I realized there were so many more reasons to quit; my health, inspiration to others, and the pride of being a quitter! So I set a date, stuck to it, and have been
smoke free for five months! I was very lucky to have a huge support system, including people I work with, go
to school with, and my family. It was important for me to tell everyone I knew that I was quitting, so when I
was tempted to ask for a cigarette or “just one puff” I was denied every time. It helped that my friends and
family understood if I was a bit grumpy for the first few weeks, I was only going through withdrawal and I
wouldn’t be a grouch forever. After a while it just got easier and easier! Taking it one day at a time is
important. I never say I will never smoke again, but I do say each day that I choose not to smoke that day. I
am also one month away from becoming debt free! I am in control of my life and my health, and I have
never felt better!
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I started smoking when I was 11. Why? Because I wanted to be just like my mother. She was my hero, and I wanted to be like her and smoke like a woman. The only really strange thing about this is that I was a boy.
I was a closet cross dresser and closet smoker for the next two years until my dad caught me all decked out in one of my mother’s nightgowns and smoking a cigarette. He and Mom were supposed to stay out late at a party, but I guess that’s Murphy’s Law in action.
There was a lot of crying and hair pulling and trips to the psychiatrist. And finally acceptance. We sold our house and moved and I started high school as a girl and a smoker, of course I couldn’t smoke in school but I smoked where every where else.
By the time I graduated from high school, I had on orchiectomy (castration) and breast implants. I got full blown surgery for my 19th birthday to turn my outtie into an innie.
The surgeries didn’t end there, because I wanted to as much like my mom as possible, which meant I wanted to look older. When I was 20 years old, I met an older man who paid for my many cosmetic surgeries to look older. By the time, I was 25, I looked like I was 45. My sugar daddy and I broke up two years after that and I met a nice middle aged man with children. We’ve now been married for five wonderful years, and I’m still a smoker, just like my mom, only now we’re both trying to quit.