I was always fascinated with cigarettes from when I was a kid. I think it started from all those movies I seen and now if anyone says that it was the negative influence of the media, well then I would tell him get a life, it was either the media or from the outside. In other words it would have been unavoidable. I remember those games I used to play with my brother where we used to be in an imaginary Jurassic Park scene or in an imaginary back robbery and a pencil used to be in our mouth as an imaginary cigarette.
“Dad”, I used to ask my father, “have you ever smoked.”
“I used too,” he told me “the last time I smoked was before you were born but after I was married I stopped. The last time was when your Uncle’s father had come and he still used to smoke so to keep him company I smoked with him.”
“Ha!” my mother used to come in “your father barely used to smoke. He just smoked on that day to show everyone he could smoke.” That issue is still an unresolved matter. Going back to the point I am making...It is not just about cigarettes, but everything that the world offers which people say are addictive. Cigarettes, drugs, alcohol. Should we or should we not try them. The risks of having these are of addiction, of becoming slaves to these materials or even such as you’re too young to have them. Now when you talk about young, things are changing very fast, the youth of every generation seems to be maturing faster than the last one. For example when I was in fifth standard I did not know anything of reproductive system or neither did I use abusive words in my speaking vocabulary, however now you go to a fifth standard child and you know things are different. In the West, maturity development has moved up to youth aged as young as 13 years old, (the main reason why maturity has developed is simply because of exposure that gives information).
So why do the youth do what they do. Why do they have drugs, alcohol and cigarettes? Simple, they are curious and to satisfy that they try out stuff. Sure, you will hear older people saying they should do this when they are older when they are working and earning their own money. But that’s where my theory of maturity comes.
Then some people or even you may say then if their maturing faster, then they should be able to work earlier. They should be able become professionals as soon as they mature. However if you have lived life long enough then you will know that life is not that simple. Of all the many points that are available I will point out that the education systems around the world is still trying to adjust to mind of the children and this is because the mind has been on a changing part. Sure sex education has been pushed to an earlier class and the system of exams is becoming absolute, but about completing ones education in five or six years. This may sound utopian, but it is possible, the human mind has rarely been pushed beyond limits. Why can’t education of a child start from the time he or she can walk. It has been done by everyone’s ancestors at some point or the other.
As Jason sat in the train he was slightly nervous. Very soon he was going to go for his first day of college. As he worried himself over various things like friends, girlfriends and a lot of other things. One thing that struck his mind is that finally he was going to get a peak at life. He was going to be exposed to life for what it is. For quite a bit of his life he was told that he would experience life when he went out of school and into college. Little did he know that he would hear the same thing, but in a different context- going out of college and going to work. Hearing something like that would be a pain. And… Back to Jason. Sure, he reached college fine and living up to his habits from his boarding school he came reached his class ten minutes early. The class was empty. He felt awkward, hell anyone would if on their first day of anything they would come early and find the room empty. He chose a nice corner seat and sat there. From his back he extracted an Alistair Maclean book and started reading. People came, but ignored them. He did not need company, that was provided by the imaginary world created by his book. He glanced at his watch. Two minutes left. He raised his eyes slowly above the book and its looks like he was not the only person who liked to sit alone. There were about six to seven people in class who were also sitting alone.
The bell rang and people started pouring in. And he made new friends. This story maybe very boring for you to read, damn it boring for me to write so let’s do a fast forward. So this Jason found his place in college with a six people. Most of them smoked cigarettes, but he vowed not to smoke. He did not know why, but most of his other rules laid down this one too had no logical basis, it just came from the gut. When you’re with friends you grow curious of such things. You wonder what keeps them hooked on it. They themselves don’t have an appropriate answer. And then one day he tried, he pulled the smoke into his lungs and he felt his head become lighter. However Jason did not really become a regular smoker. On an average he managed to keep it to only once a month. This once a month was only on the days he felt very tired or he felt like crap. However he felt that he could very easily become a full- fledge and regular smoker, but he was afraid he would get hooked. He was wrong. That once a month cigarette he was not able to escape from and he had to have it every month and no matter how much he tried he could not.
Jason began to consider himself weak. Imagine if every day was difficult and tough to live, then everyday he would smoke. To motivate himself to quite he used to tell himself that he stronger and better than this. He did not need cigarettes to handle the pressures of life.
I like to end by the simple line, what is the use of living if you don’t try everything.
