To smoke or not to smoke.

I almost forgot that I had a vice. I got it when I was studying in my first profession. I was a girl who had no knowledge of many things in life because in my home I was separated from all reality and I could only live according to the reality that my father had built and, as time went by, I realized that everything he said was false.

When I studied at the nursing institute there were many girls, from all over the country. Older girls, married girls with children and husbands, girls with boyfriends, girls who came from other cities and lived in residences, all of these people in one place was beyond my imagination, I never thought I would meet such a variety of people.

I had never been away from home all day, but there I was, from 7am to 5pm. When we stayed at noon for lunch, all the girls would talk about boyfriends, sex and other things I had never heard of in my life. Other than that they went to parties and had vices that caught my attention.

I had never drank alcohol and later on I learned that I was allergic to drinking. Even drinking a little of this liquid would turn my body red until I was almost as red as a shrimp. It seemed like I was boiling too, so drinking alcohol during the days of celebration in high school was not my choice.

Then the other thing was cigarettes. Many of them smoked and would pass me the cigarette to give to one of the other girls who also smoked.

Time went by and the girls would tell me, "You still haven't tried them? Come on, see if you like it” I made up my mind one fine day and tried it, like many people, I first took a puff and then I started smoking.  Then I tried and tried until I learned to exhale the smoke. It's not something I'm proud of but I learned to smoke.

I spent over 10 years smoking until I decided it was time to quit. Why? Well, I was suffering from flu, bronchitis and pharyngitis and I didn't know why. I heard internists tell their patients that this habit would do nothing good for their lungs, but that wasn't enough for me.

I moved to a city where the cold was constant, I had to live warmly and when student demonstrations occurred my lungs felt so bad that respiratory infections stalked me all the time.

Once when I came home on vacation in July I had to stay in the hospital for up to 5 days in a row. I could not smoke there. I never liked smoking in a bathroom. So I decided to quit and my interest in quitting began. I went a whole month without smoking. Then when I was on my way back to college it was my habit to stop by to get gas, buy a coffee and a box of cigarettes.

I thought about it, while I was getting gas I walked here and there. I said to myself if I spent a month without smoking I can spend a 17 hour trip driving alone, without smoking.

I did it, I drove around drinking only coffee at gas stations and kept going, then I went two months, six months, two years and a lifetime without smoking after that. I was 27 when I quit smoking. I think it was the dumbest thing I ever did in my life, blowing smoke out of my mouth.

With the disappearance of this bad habit my breathing problem disappeared by 50%, because my lungs were very sensitive. After I quit smoking, it started to bother me that others did it next to me. Breathing in the smoke that others exhale has been proven to be worse than inhaling it in the first place.

I stopped grouping with people who smoked around me and this improved my respiratory distress by another 25%. The other 25% is the one I maintain to this day for having allowed a vice to damage my respiratory tract.

Bad decisions have long term consequences and this is one that I must carry for the rest of my life.