On My Most Hated Habit...

...hint: it's one I don't have.

I've gone off about smoking more times than I remember in my life. I always want to write passive-aggressive Facebook statuses about my disdain for it, but I have friends who are smokers that don't blow it in my face and are respectful, and I don't want them to think this is targeted toward them (though I do think they should quit). It's targeted at the self-centered jerks that walk around with cigarettes and don't think about how their habit is affecting everyone around them.

So let's start there. People who walk with cigarettes. I get it, outside is the only place you can really smoke, particularly in New York state. But can you maybe stand still while smoking to keep it all (kind of) in one place? It sucks coming out of the subway and walking up behind someone just to find smoke being blown in your face a second later or as you pass them. I didn't choose to smoke, but YOU did, and now you're affecting my health.

I know there are plenty of other things affecting my health outside, like pollution and cars and UV rays, but when you live in New York City those are kind of hard to avoid (except for the UV. Sunscreen for the win!). But I feel like I'm pretty much guaranteed to get cancer later in life because of all the second-hand smoke that's come my way in just 24 years of life.

It's totally a person's choice to smoke, just as it's a person's choice to drink. Both tobacco and alcohol are legal. And it's true that alcohol can have just as much of an affect on someone else's life, particularly when someone drinks it in mass quantities, then does something stupid like get behind the wheel of a car. I'm not saying that any drug is worse than another. They all have pretty terrible affects.

But smoking just totally grinds my gears. I don't know how people can afford to do it (and it's more prevalent here where rent is usually over $1000. WTH?). I don't know why someone would choose to do it when studies have shown it almost always leads to cancer. And when someone is doing it near a park where people are doing physical activities? The worst.

I get all my passive-aggression out on this subject in person rather than on Facebook, because it's really easy to do. I make sure the smoker sees that I'm holding my breath or turning my face away from their cigarette. If I accidentally inhale it (usually on a run), I cough. And I cough loud. Like I said, I never chose to smoke. But you did and now you're messing up my air more so than my surroundings already have.

That's probably enough of this rant. You get the point. Smoking is terrible, and if you do it around me, I'm going to be obnoxious. Unless you're polite and don't blow it near me (or at anyone else), then whatever. Do your thing.