STORY
A young American family decided to have children. Both, mother and father
smoked since they were young. Young mummy continued with smoking even
during her pregnancy although the doctors warned her that smoking was not
healthy for the child. She always said and believed that her smoking had no
harm on her child because by inhaling smoke it went into her lungs and not
to the child.
So little Johnny was born and his body was already used to tobacco smokes.
However all his childhood he was exposed to passive smoking, which he didn't
like at all. Sometimes he was so angry with his parents because they smoked
that he locked himself in his room or threw packets of cigarettes in trashes.
He swore he would never smoke especially after being taught in school how harmful smoking is for people.
Johnny was a good student and also a good sportsman. He trained running and
he also won several races. Being a successful sportsman he was against
smoking himself, because he had a few small problems in school just like
other children, but he solved them all.
He liked to go to the parties, to the cinema and if his parents allowed him,
he also went to the disco. One day one of his friends invited him to the party.
There were mostly teenagers just like Johnny. Most of them smoked and they
made fun of younger ones who didn't smoke. They also threatened younger boys
that everyone who wouldn't smoke 'a ' would have to go home. Some of
younger boys smoked a cigarette just to stay at the party. Johnny didn't want
to smoke but at the end, when someone said to him that he had to go home
because he was still a kid, he lit his first cigarette.
Now all of younger ones were there standing with a cigarette in their mouths.
The older ones were very delighted and they shook hand to every 'new' smoker. Most of those new smokers felt sick and they
got pale face but Johnny was 'OK', he just coughed a few times. Probably because his body was already used to cigarette's
smoke.
At first Johnny didn't smoke like his parents and other boys. He just inhaled
smoke but only in his mouth not in his lungs, and then he exhaled it. However,
he felt older and more important.
A few weeks later one of his friends said to him that he smokes like kids.
He said that he must let the smoke to go into his lungs and Johnny started
to smoke like adults.
For Johnny smoking became a habit already in high school when he went smoking
many times with his friends and usually under the bridge near their school.
When he was in the third grade of high school he already smoked a box of
cigarettes a day. He just couldn't stay without a cigarette. He smoked in
school toilet, under the bridge near school, behind his house, at his friends,
on stadium after training, on parties, in disco, and he also went for a walk
many times just to smoke 'a '.
He also had troubles a few times because a teacher had found him smoking in
the school toilet, which was restricted.
However when his parents were told that he smoked, they didn't react at all.
His mother also said that that was not weird because all of teenagers smoked
and that she had also smoked when she had been Johnny's age. So Johnny was
able to continue with smoking but he never smoked at home when his parents
were at home because he was full of shame.
Soon Johnny couldn't concentrate himself anymore. He couldn't start thinking
about school. He didn't listen carefully during the lessons and was always
thinking about 'a ' that he would smoke in break-time. However, he
finished each school year somehow.
Although he was addicted to smoking and he knew that, he didn't stop running
and was still one of the best runners of his age. However, smoking had had
influence on his running but it was not visible.
In fact, Johnny smoked too much and couldn't run so fast anymore,
he sometimes even couldn't breathe and he often missed the training.
Johnny didn't blame smoking for this failure but he blamed his lack of
training. After training he always coughed hard and he spitted black tar
which came from his lungs.
One day, before an important race, Johnny was very nervous and he smoked
almost a box of cigarettes in turn. Then a tragedy happened. While he was
running he fainted because his lungs, brains and muscles ran out of oxygen.
Doctors took him to the hospital and they made X-ray picture of his lungs.
They found out that he had lungs almost half filled with tar and consequently
his lungs became very weak.
He had to give up training, which depressed him a lot, but unfortunately he
was not strong enough to stop smoking.
He started smoking even more and his friends advised him not to smoke so much
in vain. His school results worsened and he just made his last grade. He also
succeeded to enter the university but he never got through it because he
spent more time smoking than learning.
He was employed in a factory near his flat and he was just an ordinary worker
although he was smart enough to get through university and get a good job.
His boss always warned him to smoke less and work more, because Johnny
stopped working every five minutes to smoke 'a '.
Basically Johnny worked for cigarettes and always when he went to the store
he bought some bread, milk and five boxes of cigarettes. Many times he didn't
even pay because he didn't have enough money.
One day he almost made a disaster in the factory, because his cigarette had
caused a fire. Johnny caught fire himself, too and the fire caused big damage
and Johnny was fired.
After this he looked for a job but he couldn't find it because all of them
were low paid or he just didn't like that work.
Johnny also couldn't find a girlfriend because girls didn't even want to look
at him. He was seedy, he wore same clothes for weeks, he stank and he was
unshaved and always sleepy. Cigarettes destroyed his life totally. He
vegetated, he worked from time to time just to earn enough money for
cigarettes and some basic food.
In this way Johnny managed to live quite a long time. But his life was
changing from day to day. He spitted tar every morning and then someday
he felt pain in his lungs. He could hardly breathe so he went to the doctor.
Doctor made him a check-up and he was very attentive to Johnny's cough. He asked Johnny how many cigarettes he smoked a day.
When Johnny told him how much he smoked, the doctor said that he should have gone again on X-ray check. At first Johnny
didn't want that,
because he remembered the first time when he was on X-ray examination but then changed his mind.
Ater X-ray examination the doctor found out that Johnny had
lung-cancer.
At first Johnny didn't even know how seriously bad that was but when the
doctor said that he had only a few weeks of life more, all was clear for
Johnny and he was very shocked.
As soon as he came out of the hospital he promised himself that he wouldn't
smoke anymore, but those were just words. He came home and couldn't stand
without 'a '. So Johnny spent last days of his life with a cigarette in
his mouth.
When he died a lot of his friends and other people came to his funeral.
Some of them decided to stop smoking just because of Johnny and his disease.
P.S.
Johnny was escorted by cigarette's smoke all of his life. The cigarette smoke
was destroying his life since he was conceived.
Young people have their life still in their own hands. They shouldn't sell it
to cigarettes because the price is too high.
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