How I Tried My First Cigarette in Life

Hello friends,

In my previous post, I shared how I tried alcohol for the first time in Class 12.

Now, the next step after that is usually smoking a cigarette.

But I didn’t have mischievous friends who smoked and provoked others to smoke too.

I had one school friend who had started smoking from Class 8, and I used to think of him as quite a delinquent.

He scored 60% in his 10th-grade exams but showed a fake mark sheet with 80% to his family.

When you start going off-track, eventually everything begins to feel normal.

I had understood that cigarettes are extremely addictive and dependency forms very easily. So when I went on a trip to Nainital with my college classmates, I had already made up my mind that I would consume alcohol, but I wouldn’t try cigarettes.

There, 1–2 people offered me a cigarette, but I declined.

They weren’t close friends, so they didn’t push me too hard.

Then, 2–3 months later, I watched the “Last Cigarette Ever” episode of How I Met Your Mother, and it influenced me a bit.

One day, while returning from college, I bought a small Gold Flake cigarette for ₹10 and brought it home in my bag.

That night, I lit it and smoked.

To be honest, it felt really good.

It felt so good that I got scared and put the cigarette out halfway.

Then I lay down on my bed and enjoyed the buzz.

When the buzz wore off in 5–10 minutes, I smoked the rest of the cigarette too—and it was a pleasurable experience.

I still vividly remember thinking in that moment, “Man, I could easily become addicted to cigarettes.”

I didn’t tell anyone about this, and obviously, that wasn’t the last cigarette of my life.

After that, I smoked on a few more occasions by myself and with some friends too. I used to really like Marlboro Lights back then.

Then when I started my job, unfortunately I met a friend named Raghib, and with him I started smoking regularly after lunch.

And that is how I became a cigarette addict.

It’s been almost 9 years since then. I don’t smoke daily now, but yes, occasionally I do enjoy a smoke.

I know it’s a bad habit, and it can kill me. Plus, society doesn’t really accept smoking.

But my thought is: bro, you’re not living for society—you’re living for yourself.

What people think doesn’t affect me one bit, and in a way, smoking is like a “F*** You” message to society from me.

I know that when people see me smoking, they judge me.
And I still keep smoking because their judgment doesn’t bother me at all.

This is my life, bro. I have the right to make my own decisions—whether they’re good for me or bad.