Here’s a bit of a different topic from food allergies and asthma, but along the lines of lung health (my other passion): Not long ago I re-connected with a longtime friend’s sister right as she began her journey to a smoke free life. She is on her second month now of being smoke free and has agreed to share her story over the next few weeks of how she got started smoking, what it brought to her life and where she is today. Her story is very personal and honest. Actually, I don’t know her story either, it has been many, many years, so this is all news to me too. We’ll be reading her story together. Never-the-less, I admire that Leticia is willing to share her life with us in hopes that someone else avoids this path. So…here is Leticia who should be close to or in her 40’s by now (but who is really counting right)?…
From guest blogger Leticia:
Where it all got started …
I was In the sixth grade at break looking for my best friends who I always played with. It was not normal for me not to see them in our usual place…at the courts. Well I thought it was strange, so I went on a mission to find them. As I walked toward the fields that were behind the courts which was like two or three acres of what I liked to call the woods. That’s what it looked like to me with lots of redwood trees standing very tall and they would hide anyone who was in there well. Well I proceeded to continue my searching into the woods as I saw them nowhere else on the school property. As I approached the woods, I heard “Shhh! Shhh!” Sure enough I found my best friends there smoking ! They had a shocked look on them, because I found them. I was shocked as well to see them there smoking. Well we all started to laugh a little as I asked them “what are you doing?” They said “seeing what it is like to smoke” a friend named “Greg” had showed them. They told me right away ” we are not gonna let you try this!” Well things didn’t turn out quite that way…funny you know when that curious cat comes out to play? Weeeeell …lets just say it got the best of me and my friends. That is where my whole life changed!
That day in the woods I learned how to smoke and I thought it was the coolest thing to do. I was twelve years old and I thought there was nothing cooler. Back in those days they didn’t have restrictions for buying cigarettes at the stores… anyone could buy them, even kids could buy them for their dads no matter what age. Wished they had those restrictions back then, let me tell you! I think if dogs wanted to buy them they could have! Remember this was the days where gas was only 65 cents per gallon! Yeah! Those days will never come back.. right? So I remember my dad would smoke. His brand was Benson And Hedges (Menthol) and I would start by stealing some of his smokes and I would call my friends and tell them I had some smokes .
We would all get together at my friends house, we will call her “Sandy.” We did everything at her house because she lived with her aunt who was always working or off to night school for oil painting classes. So it was me, and we will just say “D”- the three of us were always together at Sandy’s house. That is where we would get into our much learned experiences with our life starting with smoking. So when we all met over at Sandy’s that first day we were all excited about smoking ooooo! We would practice one cigg after another and we would choke our butts off! Then Sandy would say ” No! you have to breathe the smoke in!” We were, I had thought… that’s why we were choking! Well it became an everyday thing just about and we would practice even walking cool to look “hip” as we were smoking.
Well eventually a friend of our “Greg” would start coming around and hanging out with us. Greg would laugh because I always would choke on the cigg when I was smoking it, and I would feel stupid! So, he started to teach me how to smoke properly… as if that could really be proper, hmmm? So I was very determined to get this down because I wanted to be the best at it …and boy was I! So Greg also stated to teach us a new thing ….Marijuana …yeah …like that’s all I needed to do!
So now i not only progressed in learning how to smoke. If that wasn’t enough… I started to learn to do drugs! Well here we go on the start of a fallen journey with smoking and drugs. We continued to smoke and do drugs everywhere and all through high school except in the ninth grade I dropped out, so high school wasn’t completed for me. In the ninth grade I met someone who offered me a life away from home at that time I was thinking it was for the best.
One of the hardest things I find about managing both life threatening food allergies and asthma is talking to others. I hate to be the one that might be perceived as demanding, pushing or for asking too much. What I now know, fourteen years later, is that honest, clear information presented with kindness works!..
This is great. Looking forward to next installment
Interesting and difficult journey. Good to hear that Leticia is smoke free for two months. Keep up the faith and thank you for sharing your experiences.