Live above the influence.

Ever since the third grade, I’ve been taught about the harmful effects of smoking. By now, I’ve heard it a million times, and, like me, most of us are tired of getting the same information shoved down our throats.

What drives a person to make these decisions?

Maybe it’s our rebellious mentality, or maybe it’s just so we can check it off our list of things to do before we die.

Whatever the reason, watching friends and family members fall to the effects of smoking has left me with a bad taste for cigarettes and the harm they bring.

All of my life, I’ve been around smokers.

Family members lighting up during holiday gatherings is a regular occurrence, and lately, so are health problems. For the past 17 years, I’ve experienced first hand the effects of smoking and the harm they bring.

Family members dying because of health problems due to smoking only pushes me to try to put an end to these problems.

My grandma died at age 53 because of health problems caused by smoking. Because she died just months after I was born, Grandma "B" was someone I never got to know.

All my life I’ve wondered how differently things would be if I had been there to take the cigarettes away. I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe I could have saved a life.

The bottom line is, smoking kills you, and it hurts the people around you.

Losing friends because of their poor decision to smoke has had an influential impact on my life.

Their decision to light up has caused me to lose respect for the people I thought they were.

High school is known for making mistakes and trying new things, but making a decision that could cost you your life doesn’t seem worth it. If you want to take a risk, bungee jump, mountain climb, or take up karate.

After her decision to smoke, I’ve noticed a drastic change in one of my friend’s character. The person I once thought to be a driven, hard-working individual started to slack off and lose interest in things that were important to her.

I never want to be in the position where I find myself struggling to keep control. After people start, they can’t stop.

My friend isn’t the same person I thought she was. We have nothing to talk about anymore, and I regret not being there to give her another option.

According to ncbi.gov, a medical website,, one cigarette takes away 11 minutes of one’s life. Those precious moments taken away from life add up.

Consider those minutes wasting away. Like the last couple minutes in a hockey game, as your team struggles to take the lead; like the final buzzer in a basketball game when your down by one point; or like the last couple minutes as you work to push an essay out on the ACT, time is everything.

Those 11 minutes turn to hours, those hours turn to days, those days turn to years. Time doesn’t stop for anyone.

Think about it.

I don’t expect to cure the world of all of its problems, but if I can stop one person from making a decision that will ruin his/her life then I’ve done my job.

I may not be in the third grade anymore, but I’m living above the influence.