I’m a guy of twenty-six who has been smoking since the age of fourteen.

I have always been extremely shy and withdrawn. I had few friends and I spent most of my childhood and adolescence being constantly ridiculed for my chubby, baby-faced appearance and for being the epitome of the “milquetoast” or bookworm.

The idea of smoking in front of anyone else terrified me. Smoking was so much out of character, that I felt I would lay myself open to even more scorn and derision if any of my classmates ever caught me puffing on a cigarette.

Similarly, I have never been able to bring myself to smoke in front of my parents since I have always been “their little boy” who was too old-fashioned and wholesome to indulge in such a practice.

Therefore, I always had to sneak both... Read More