Don’t know about you, but I positively hate smokers. Having said that, I have friends who smoke, and am almost always tickled whenever they sit near me and ask the famous question: “Do you mind if I smoke?”
Well, what do you expect me to reply? “Yes, I do..get lost!?” So what I normally do would be to grab the nearest newspaper I can find and start fanning away like crazy, or if I can’t find a newspaper, I’ll probably find a good excuse to get up and leave. Anything from “Oh, look at the time! Got to go for work!” or “Man, I need to go to the restroom, fast!”
What is more shocking to me is to find that people are starting this smoking habit as young as their teenage years, and usually it boils down to peer pressure. You see your friends or peers doing it, so you join in (or feel like an outcast). And there’s also the famous excuse for starting this dirty habit: “I feel stressed, so I smoke.” Duh, give me a break!
I’m pleased to say that during my years in England and America, nobody has ever coerced me to smoke. My friends take me for what I am, and that’s it. That’s the way it should be. And some of them are so polite that they will snub out their cigarette when they see me coming!
