playing it cool

Words:592

Entry for Writer’s Cramp

January 17, 2015



Playing it Cool

By Lisa Ann Noe



People often ask me, how did you quit smoking?

Well I’ll tell you, my recipe for success is

To almost die! Yes, that’s what happened and believe me, then you will quit without hesitation.

I was diagnosed with a rare lung condition known as Interstitial Lung Disease, and on top of that, I smoked a pack of cigarettes a day. Pretty stupid you say, well I agree. But I had to learn the hard way, I would like to offer my recipe for quitting smoking for all those young people out there who thinks it is cool to light up.

Also, I hope some of you adults will pay attention too.



I am on oxygen every day and night for the rest of my life and I’m only 48 years old, I’ve been on it for the past seven years.  My mom tried her best when I was young to make me quit smoking, but I refused to listen to reason.  Now I hope that you will heed my warning. Don’t smoke, it can cause cancer, heart disease, emphysema, among other things.  It makes you stay sick longer with colds and flu’s and effects your blood pressure etc.  There is no end of the bad effects smoking has on a person’s health.

What is my Recipe you say:



I would suggest you visit a place like a nursing home or a health department, and see first hand the effect smoking has on a person.  With me my family showed me, tough love, they said they would not want to see me anymore if I didn’t quit smoking, because I was worrying them to death.  I was always in and out of the hospital for pneumonia, which was brought on by my smoking, the doctor said I would surely die if I didn’t give them up.  I no longer drove a vehicle due to a car accident so I could not sneak out to get a pack of cigarettes at night or behind my family’s back so eventually, the craving started dwindling. 



Had my family not put their foot down I would probably have continued smoking and would be dead by now, the doctor didn’t think I would make it through my last bout of pneumonia, but thanks to not smoking I did.  If you challenge yourself or perhaps do it for someone else’s good perhaps you too would be successful.  I try to tell anyone who will listen to my story about the wicked effects of smoking on the human body.  If you think about it, You’ll agree it is a stupid habit that many of us started during our teen years in order to play it cool with our friends. Now you aren’t so cool by smoking it just stupid. I can say this because I was stupid for 30 years and now that I came to my senses I want to warn everyone else.



Smoking also makes you age prematurely and none of us want that.

Weigh it with the price of a pack of cigarettes today, what are they about

$5.00 a pack now? I’ve not bought them for so long I don’t really know the price.

I am grateful that my two little nephews didn’t take up the habit we owe that to an increased awareness the schools focus on the subject now, they consider cigarettes as being a form of drugs.

And I guess they are right. Here’s to your recipe for quitting, I hope you are successful.