| 3/24/2006 |
SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES
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I don't talk about my job much, becuase half the time there isn't much to talk about. Also, there is the whole job + blog = bad karma that I typically like to avoid. But there are some things that I think are worth mentioning. If nothing else just to see what others think about it.
Without boring you with the glorious details my job, basically we go to high school to train non-smokers to talk to their smoking friends in an effort to try and get them to quit smoking.
The reaction I get when I tell people this is what I do typically is either 1) "I don't smoke, but my [friend/significant other/relative] does!" 2) "That's good those kids need it. I should've never started when I was in high school." Not everyone says one of these two things, but for the most part, strangers do.
Let's get my personal feeling about smoking out here in the open. I've dated people that smoked. I've lived in an apartment where the lady downstairs smoked so much that even my apartment and clothes smelled like smoke. Most of my Grandfather's medical issues can be traced back to his 40+ years of smoking. Have I ever smoked? I can think of two seperate occasions that I had a cigarette. If I was a smoker, one bitterly cold Nebraska Winter would stop that habit. Growing up, my friends didn't smoke so there wasn't any peer pressure to smoke. I personally don't care if a person smokes. Do I want them to smoke in my place or my car? No. Would I like them to stop for their own health? Of course. Am I going to beat them senseless with publishings from the American Lung Association? No. I don't think it isn't anything they haven't already heard.
But when it comes to younger generations... that is a different story. Would I pitch a fit if my little brother or sister were smoking? You bet! They may not have heard all the campaigns against smoking.
I'm getting off topic slightly.
I'm more interested in why people suddenly feel the need to profess their own innocence and throw their friends to the wolves. Has smoking become such a taboo across the country that when you bring up smoking a person automatically has to prove they don't smoke? I'm certainly not going to condemn a person for smoking. Yet, it seems that when I mention what I do, people get jumpy. Guilty conscience?
It is also interesting to see how a person justifies themselves as a non-smoker. "I only smoke on weekends." "I only bum one off my friends every so often." "I don't buy them, so I'm not really a smoker."
So then, you don't smoke... why mention someone else does? Is it like trying to pull attention away from yourself? I'm not the smoking police. I'm not going to haul your ass off to the pokey for a frisk to make sure you don't have a carton of Marlboros on you.
The people that admit that they smoke but wish that they didn't, to them I suddenly become the 'doctor' with the magic cure-all on how to quit. While I can give them ideas on how to quit. I'm not going to be able to give you the motivation to quit. Like in many ways motivation has to come from within yourself.
There is still the reason why I think people suddenly have to confess that they smoke and how much and for how long. Is it becuase they just don't talk about their habit which (on most levels) them know is bad for them? So for someone to talk about it openly seems like a good reason to flush out their system, so to say.
I smacks a little of emotional vomitting, which I've talked about before. You start out with a simple question or response, but it leads to a tidal wave of every little incident within the last 5 years which might be remotely related.
Damn... now I feel like I need a smoke. Thank God it's Friday. |
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I posted this @ 3/24/2006 08:01:00 AM.............Need a link?..........
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