Smoking
"If God had wanted us to smoke, he would have given us a separate hole for it." These are the words that I have heard when I was young. My father kept telling me these words as he experienced it himself. My father was a smoker. He started smoking when he was eighteen and he kept smoking until thirty-five when I was born. He was smoking more than three packs of cigarettes daily. He described himself when he was a smoker as a very thin man and his face was pale. He was like a man who lost his health. After a few years he suffered from diabetes. He spent about seventeen years smoking until God had enter his life and he quit smoking. From that time, he kept warning me and my brothers about smoking. This essay is going to discuss the smoking issue among teens and offers some solutions.
Smoking is considered a very dangerous disease that threats every smoker. It contains nicotine which is the main source for smoking's diseases. Nicotine has three important effects. First, it rises up the blood-pressure. Second, it increases the heart rate. Third, it constricts blood vessels. The people who smoke inhale carbon monoxide which decreases the amount of oxygen which goes to the brain and in the heart. Moreover, smoking makes the smokers suffering of shortness of breath, heart diseases, lung diseases and other disease such as cancer.
"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life." Brooke Shields
This was one of Brooke Shields'' sayings. He was trying to convincing people not to smoke by telling them about smoking's risks. Nowadays, most of the smokers are teens. According to the Egyptian Smoking Prevention Research Institute (ESPRI), Egypt has the biggest number of smokers than any other country in the Middle East. There are more than 50% of men over eighteen smoking and they consume more than 70 billion cigarettes annually.
Smoking is considered a very important social issue. Nowadays, smoking becomes available for everyone. There are young children, teens, adults, men and women who smoke every day. The number of smokers is increasing every year. In addition, most of those smokers are teens. They want to smoke for main three reasons which they are to look mature, to experiment, and to be like their friends. First, teens think that they will become older when they smoke as they see the old people smoke. Second, they want to experiment new things because they are youths. They always have the ability to try out something new, especially when they see many people do so. Third, many teens smoke because of their friends because they think that they should do the same to be accepted in this group. Although of these important reasons, there are other reasons for them to smoke such as personal problems and family problems. Most of the smokers when they get nervous or angry, they do anything. Some of them smoke believing that this cigarette will make them feel happy. Other smokers have problems with their family or work, especially with the parents who are smokers. Many children imitate their parents' habits and as they see them smoking, the start to do like them. They believe that when they do like them, they will act like them also as a man or woman. This can make them have a lot of pressure and stress. Weight is considered another reason as there are many people who smoke to loose their weight.
Every country should pay more attention to those people who are addicted to smoking. These countries should increase the awareness programs and put more advertisements in the street. They also should prevent smoking in crowded places and building. Beside, there must be a law that punishes the people who sell cigarettes to young people and teens.
"For thy sake, tobacco, I would do anything but die."- Charles Lamb,
This sentence is the reason for stopping smoking. Smoking leads to death and this is the main reason. Teens must have an internal ability to stop quit smoking.
"The best way to stop smoking is to carry wet matches." - Anonymous
If one has really wants to quit smoking, he will do anything to quit. There are many people who tell themselves that if they want to quit smoking, they can. But, in fact, they are not honest with themselves. They are deceitful to themselves as they do nothing to quit.
Actually, this social issue had really affected me in a positive way. When I thought in my father's story, I found that if I smoke I will destroy my health with my own hands. As a result, I will destroy my body which God had given me to save. In the beginning, when I was young, my father told me his experiment with smoking many times but, I didn't know the underlying meaning of this story until I grown up. I found that many smokers had encountered many diseases through their life. This story was the main factor that encouraged me to keep away from smoking.
Finally, smoking is a very dangerous disease and can infect anyone who does not have immunity. I think my father's story is my immunity against smoking. Every time he tells me his story, I get encouraged to stop thinking about smoking. This also encourage me to avoid what my father has encountered and what he has suffered through his past life and even his recent life after quit smoking.
Process Memo
This essay has been organized according to the experience that I have lived, then in what way this experiment has affected me. Then, talk about the results of smoking. The theses were in the introduction to let the reader know what I will talk about.
Work Cited
1. http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3003308
2. http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/specialtopic/smoking-and-smokeless-tobacco/background.html
