For me, it was not my first day on a college campus. Or even the first day on this campus. But I did see college, and this campus, in a way I never have before. It was a little startling of an experience, definitely unsettling and something I never really thought I would go through. For the first time in my life, I crossed a college campus without smoking a cigarette.
Some people probably think that it is “normal” to not smoke on campus. I have even known smokers who do not smoke at school. For me, not smoking on campus is as alien as a Christmas sale in August.
The American Lung Association claims that current levels of smokers in college are down from a peak in 1999 of 30% to a still illogical 19%, or about 1 in every 5 college students smoke regularly. I started college in the fall of 1997 and I was smoking a pack of cigarettes every 24 hours like clock work. Despite the myriad anti-smoking programs targeted at my demographic, I resisted, often insolently, every attempt to get me to stop. For me, smoking was a right, like owning a gun, complaining about the government, or paying taxes. I reasoned that it was my life. I would get annoyed by those people who made the fake chocking-cough thing when they walked past me while I was smoking. They inspired me, in a way, to keep smoking.
So what changed? Fifteen years of my life and approximately 110,000 cigarettes burned, and I can't really say what compelled me to quit. However, I remember last semester meeting a group of fellow students to study and realizing the residual stench of my cigarettes was overpowering. I felt embarrassed. I recall thinking that I should quit, that doing the things I want to do and smoking would sooner or later come to an impasse, but the sensation of not having cigarettes, the fear of that happening, kept me smoking.
I wasted the final 10 minutes of class last semester daydreaming of the smooth, roasty cigarette I was about to enjoy. Now, I only think about smoking when I smell others smoking. That first day on campus was tough. Smoking was a routine for me. I had a cigarette with everything I did, and breaking that habit has been the toughest part of quitting. Only a smoker or a former smoker can truly understand how it feels to experience a craving because of a situation and to know that even one cigarette is not an option.
I never realized how many college students smoke. When I was a smoker, I always felt as though I was the last smoker on the face of the Earth. Now, I feel as though I am surrounded. One of the results of quitting smoking for me has been that my sense of smell is improved. What once was a delicious fragrance I craved, now assaults me. Not smoking, I am suddenly aware of smokers. I have a better understanding now of the non-smokers in my life who had to suffer through my smoking. It is hard to understand now what it was about cigarettes that kept me hooked.
On Campus this week, I have a new sense of freedom I have never had before. I can go from one class to another without having to stop and smoke. I don't worry about smelling nasty, or not being able to make it through a long, boring lecture anymore. I think that quitting smoking is the best decision I have made to enriching my college experience.
