A Non-smoker's Diary Entry #1
a practice in which a substance is burned and the resulting smoke breathed in to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream.
How it all began
It all started with a heartbreak. 10 years ago, I was a simple college guy. A recent highschool graduate, an achiever, a math wiz. I had a few beers, fewer than my fingers. First love came. Different from those high school crushes was what it felt. Getting comfortable, having some sweet long conversations in the middle of the school grounds - it was amazing. Then, the fire nation attack. Sad to say, it ended up early. Getting back to the moments we had shared, I remembered she said she hated smoking guys. And there, I started smoking. As the years passed by, when somebody asks why did I start it, I blamed it on her. I knew deep inside myself I was wrong - it is all on me. It was my body, and I had total control over it. Not even one person, but myself is who I can blame for all the actions that I take.
I stayed in that university for a year and a half. Being young and dumb, I lost my scholarship and was forced to go back home. This was the year Satoshi Nakamoto developed bitcoin, and there I was at the other side of the world being an ass. I stopped school for two years, but I never stopped smoking. Days became weeks, weeks became months, months became years.
I am a smoker, as you can see. Why the title then? I believe it's time to quit. I've tried more times than you can say 'quit' in a minute. How about write about it? I've continually traded when I started my Finance Friday series, so I believe, if I write about it I'd be more committed in putting money where my mouth is. It was part of my roadmap, if you'd look at the first post I ever had. If I was an ICO, investors could've shouted 'scam' many times than one could count because I missed this one in Q1. But hopefully these steps that I will take would change that.
Smoking eats my money
I have been drunk just about 3 times last year, but I never had a single day without lighting up a cigarette. For 10 years, I smoked about two packs a day, and while writing this post, I have found out that I've spent about $8760 just on cigarettes, excluding lighters and matchsticks which I believe I've almost used a tree of it. To put it on contrast, what I've earned back in 2016 was less than $3000. I'd be better buying sats than buying cigs. Or even buying a stock of a cigarette company, and I'd be less broke than I am now. I could afford that mining rig that's just a dream, or even a trash masternode that would be my way for financial stability.
Smoking eats my time
Lighting a cigarette takes 5 minutes of my time. Lighting up two packs eats up 3 hours and 20 minutes of my day. That is the time required to write a great steemit post or two. Devoting that time
on looking up on comments on Steemit, interacting with people and even on trading, I believe I'll be better. If I hadn't wasted that 507 days on lighting up, I could've avoided wasting time and could've started a part-time job that'd paid me extra, or I could've discovered bitcoin earlier. Just one mistake on lighting up that first cigarette made me waste an equivalent of 507 days of my life and made it so hard to quit now.
Smoking eats my health
It's been 10 years, and I'm more worried that I haven't seen any effects of it, except of being a nicotine addict. I could still walk 3 miles and feel no shortness of breath, I haven't had a cough longer than a week, and I haven't felt any symptoms of any long term effects of it. I am more worried that there are no signs, because I am thinking if once it will come, it will be severe.
Back then, I felt smoking was relieving my tension and anxiety, but as the years passed by, it's more of I'd feel stressful that I hadn't had a cigarette in my mouth for the past 30 minutes or so. Even while writing this post, I'm already craving for one.
How to stop smoking
The only post I've seen here on steemit was how @acidyo overcame it by using gaming as another outlet. I believe that worked well for him. It didn't for me. Well, smoking was actually part of my gaming routine. I've played Dota for more than 12 years, and some other MMOs for a few years. But every game or every hunt I've done, I routinely go out of the shop to light out one or two. And of course, working as a college faculty takes a lot of time which if gaming compared to smoking needs straight times of commitment. Now, I'm using the blockchain approach. One way would be using Steemit, and the other is trading with little amounts which I could afford to lose. I'd be posting here and there, on what I'd feel to let it out. And if you've been a past smoker, or a health professional, I'd love to hear from you and what approaches you could suggest.
Source
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