Hi, my name is Lou and I am a non-smoker. Yes, I admit it; I am a non-smoker, with
everything that means. I have come here to stand up and confess before you and my
creator that I don`t smoke, and may all of you forgive me for any hurt I may have
caused you.
Oh, I didn`t used to be a non-smoker, but I started it as a lark. Other people my
age would walk around not smoking, being oh-so sophisticated, and come up to me and
say, c`mon, Lou, don`t take a puff. It feels soo-o-o good!
So one day I didn`t take a puff, out in back of the shop class. I felt so sick I
thought I would throw up. Never again, I said, I`m too smart for this. But then my
girl friend came by with no cigarette in her hand and I didn`t want to seem stupid.
So I didn`t smoke, and I kept it up.
Pretty soon I wasn`t smoking more and more often. Sometimes I would go to the
bathroom and not light up, and I thought I was pulling one over on my parents, as if
they couldn`t smell the lack of smoke in the bathroom after I was there! I started
hanging out with guys I didn`t even like just so I could not have a smoke. You
should have seen me, leaning against the library with nothing in my mouth.
It got so that I would have to not smoke in order to relax. I even found myself not
smoking the first thing when I got up, and the last thing before I went to bed. I
would even deny that I wasn`t smoking. At work I would wait nervously for the 2 work
breaks. One day I didn`t pick up a stained, old cigarette butt and it didn`t even
faze me.
But I always thought I would be able to quit. `I can leave it or take it`, I would
say, but I was leaving it more and more, and soon I had a $0.00 a day habit. I
wasn`t smoking nearly three packs a day! The worst part of it is, you could even not
smell it in my clothes. One day I heard someone say, `Kissing a non-smoker is like
not licking an ashtray!`
The thing that really bothers me the most is that I am making my friends and loved
ones breathe my side-stream fresh air. I understand that`s the worst kind of fresh
air. Especially for young ones who don`t have any choice in the matter. Or patrons in
restaurants here in Oregon where the city fathers have decided in their wisdom to make
it illegal to force others to breathe fresh air. Oh, yes, I can sit in the
non-choking section but even so my fresh air gets through the air conditioning and
ruins the appetites of others.
I ask for your forgiveness and your help. Thank you.