My father did the same thing. He used to smoke a pack a day and the day that I was born he quit and never touched it again, and then when I was old enough to understand cigarettes, he taught me to never start smoking and I never have.

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tempestn 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Though it took my dad a bit longer, he managed to quit for good when I was a kid. Still died of lung disease at 80, but I have to think it would likely have been much sooner if he'd never quit. Anyway, watching him struggle with it when I was young definitely make me repulsed by cigarettes (and most other addictive substances) such that I've certainly never been tempted to try them.

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JKCalhoun 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Good for him.

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reilly3000 12 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Stay that way. Your first cigarette will never let you forget it.

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madwolf 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Not necessarily. I’m over 40 now and had a total of 3 cigarettes in my life, all of them in my twenties, parties, hanging out with people smoking etc. Every time it was a terrible experience and I was amazed why people do this to themselves…

	▲	JKCalhoun 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Yeah, same for me—the first dozen or so sucked. And then one day they were awesome and relaxing.
	▲	outime 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I don't think OP advice is wrong as a general advice though. I've also smoked very sporadically and never got really hooked (as opposed to my whole family), but plenty of regular smokers started with that first one. It's better to not take any chances.

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bluecheese452 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I had maybe 10 cigarettes lifetime. Haven’t had one in a decade.

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Markoff 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

No need to be drama queen. I am also 40+, had for sure 10-20 cigarettes in my teenage years to try it and on social ocassions with friends, never saw the appeal, found the taste disgusting (and remember being dizzy) and don't remember my 1st cigarette at all. For the record I dislike as well taste of beer or coffee, got used to wine, which I drink only when visiting father or him visiting me, so totally like twice a year (though it's then multiday affair). It's same with alcohol addiction, drank fairly enough during teenage years, then pretty much stopped completely during 20s (only rarely with colleagues), then around 30 while in China was drinking daily for lunch and dinner 40+ % spirit (baijiu) for months with colleagues, then completely stopped overnight after finding better (but less laid-back) job.

Now recreational marijuana (ideally through bong) is way way more appealing than dumb tobacco cigarettes which do nothing, had it during my teenage years and also during my 20s on different ocassions with colleagues/friends (one of them used it during cancer treatment) and I can see myself having some even now in 40s if I could buy it legally.