Smoking and its effect on society Essay Example for Free

Smoking and its effect on society EssayMany people suppose that they are in control of their own lives. They hope that their lives are based upon choices they make as individuals. For me on the other hand it is different. I have given my choice away(predicate). Throughout my entire feel I have been waiting to attain a feeling of independence and a sense of power over my decisions. However, over the past couple years I have succeeded this power, this choice to an colony that impacts individuals and families all over the world. In high up school I was a three sport athlete whom had the opportunity to profligacy at the college level in both soccer and basketball.But like I previously stated I gave my choice away when I began the unsafe addictive habit of smoking cigarettes. When I wake up every day I make a list of things I need to rile d angiotensin-converting enzyme that day, I never write down crazy weed a cigarette but in the back of my mind there is always a plan fo r smoking a bogie. Imagine waking up every morning and needing a drink of anything you can write down your hands on just so you can breathe. This is what I deal with on a daily basis. I am constantly thirsty, out of breathe, and congested. My day is run by when to smoke one.I have a cigarette when I wake up, drink coffee/red bull, after a meal, on the drive to class, on the drive home from class, time Im doing homework, after sex, when I get bored, and before bed. I smoke a little more than disco biscuit cigarettes a day, so lets do the math for how much I spend in a year for cigarettes. If we round it to half a pack a day, that means I smoke a pack of cigarettes in 2 days. If there are 365 in a year, thats 182. 5 packs I smoke a year. In todays economy cigarettes in New York go for $10 a pack, thats the cheapest you can acquire a single pack of Newports, which are my cigarette of choice.So if you multiply 182. 5 times 10, thats $1825 a year I spend on cigarettes. To put this nu mber in perspective for you, the tuition costs here at Clinton Community College for a full year is 3,960. So for one semester its $1,980. Essentially this means that if I wasnt addicted to nicotine I could just nearly pay for a self-coloured semester of college each year rather than buy 182. 5 packs of cigarettes. For now a pack every two days isnt a death sentence, but if its one thing that is true about addictive habits it is that they only get worse.On this pace within years I could be gradually progressing my addiction to the point where I smoke a pack, maybe even two a day. At this point I struggle sometimes to even find the cash to get a pack, so I can only imagine the financial hardships that await me if my disease progresses. My finances arent the only part of my life that is impacted by my nicotine addiction, my health has also suffered an extreme amount. Throughout my whole life I have been the kid yelling one more one more throw, one more kick, one more shot.Even tho ugh I have always dealt with a mild case of asthma, sensational has been the only word to detect my athletic performance between the lines on a field or court. My senior year in high school I ran a 540 cubic centimetre, today I would be lucky to run for 5 straight minutes let alone almost complete a mile during it. Coming out of high school I was recruited by the Plattsburgh Mens soccer coach to play center half back, which if you know anything about soccer is basically the position which requires the best athlete with the best conditioning on the entire team.In the spring of 2009 I tried my first cigarette. At first I hated it, made me cough, feel sick, and smelt horrible. But and then I kept smoking them, soon I began to crave the high of smoking one. Whether it was morning, noon, or night when I wanted one I had to have it. Eventually the summer came and since I was recruited by SUNY Plattsburgh I was required to get myself in to tip top shape before I went up there for presea son. instead I fed into my addiction and smoking cigarettes led to little energy, which led to societying more than I ever had my entire life.This new phase of my life where every other night there was a graduation party just furthered my habits. It was a phase that to this day I still believe opened doors I was never able to close. By the time preseason had come near I was in the worst shape id ever been in. There were certain expectations I was supposed to meet and I couldnt have been further from that point. Instead of being a freshmen stud starting on a college soccer team, I became a reserve who could not even go on away trips with the team. My addiction of smoking not only took a toll on my health that year, but also my life.I had failed to meet one of the goals I had worked so hard for my entire life. At this point I came to a realization that cigarettes were my kryptonite, they made me weak and were slowly but surely killing me. A somebody who hasnt dealt with addiction pull up stakes say why dont you just stop, its a choice just dont do it. What these people dont understand is that I not only dont have a choice but I am not one bit in control of anything, nicotine owns me, runs me and fuels me. I am one of many Americans either directly or indirectly effected by smoking.Our society has been very progressive in encouraging people to refrain from smoking. The biggest weapon used is just flat out information. Just reading over these facts makes me want to throw my pack in the toilet as we speak. There are more than 4,800 chemicals in cigarette smoke, and 69 of them are known to feature cancer (Kenny, 2012). Also 90% off lung cancer deaths and 80-90% of emphysema and chronic bronchitis deaths are due to smoking (American Lung Association, 2014). Smoking decreases the life of the average male by 13 years (American Lung Association, 2014).The average male in the U. S. is expected to live until 77. By smoking my entire life I am decreasing my life expe ctancy from 77 years to 63 years, scary to think about. A scary fact to hear is about arcsecond hand smoke. Smoking at home, in your backyard, or alone in your car is one thing because it is mainly only effecting yourself. Smoking in public however is a whole separate issue. In one year there are approximately 3,400 lung cancer deaths and 46,000 heart disease deaths in adult nonsmokers annually due to second hand smoke (Facts about Smoking and Tobacco Use, 2014).Those are people who die because of cigarette smoke and they arent even the ones smoking them, pretty bestial way to die. Smoking has greatly affected our society since the appearance of these statistics. Work places, public parks, and many other places have all out lawed smoking there, and if they harbort outlawed it they have designated smoking areas away from the majority of people. Over the past 50 years our society has changed its perception of smoking. Years back the kindly structure of the world made it out to be a cool thing to do. If you didnt smoke you were an outcaste, you would almost be looked down on.Back then it was a common thing to smoke in peoples homes, in movie theaters, even on planes and in restaurants. I can record when I was a kid my family would go out to eat and we would have to say non-smoking section so we wouldnt choke on our food while eating because of all the smoke. They used to promote smoking by having celebrities be their icons of the product to draw attention of the fans, or used mascots like a cattleman to signify manliness and strength, and some companies even stooped so low as to use animals as their mascots in order to make smoking friendlier towards children. decree truly does dictate what is considered a norm and what is considered to be irregular or strange. Today all of those things are illegal because a majority of the people believe those methods to be dishonorable and misguiding. The social structure of our society is constantly changing and maybe on e day society as a whole will realize how harmful smoking is to the individual as well as the group and outlaw it completely. In this paper I have talked about my addiction to nicotine because it is a problem I deal with on a daily basis.This addiction of mine has effected many areas of my life including work, relationships, health, school, even self-esteem. Through typography this paper I have realized what a financial toll this habit has already taken on my wallet, thousands of dollars have been stolen from me by my addiction. In rundown and more importantly, this addiction has already possibly taken years off of my life which is an eye opener that one cannot turn their back on. In closedown smoking cigarettes has not only impacted my life, but is a nasty habit that effects the lives of individuals and families all over the world.