Thought Processes Resulting from a Walk from Vari Hall to SSB

You know what I despise and can't seem to escape? Cigarette smoke.

As I walked from Vari Hall to the Schulich building this afternoon I realized that it was EVERYWHERE. Now, mind you, this is not much of a walk as far as walks are concerned--about six minutes or so. However, it was like I had smoke blown in my face at every step and since I got it blown in my face the minute I stepped out of Vari Hall I decided to count. ELEVEN is what the figure came out to. The first 3 were right outside the doors to Vari Hall as one would expect. No surprise there. Then as I tried to cover the distance as fast as possible so as to avoid the snow and cold I got only about a few metres from the doors when a guy walked by me with a cigarette hanging off his lips. Number 4. A little bit more and a I encounter a lady hurriedly walking in the opposite direction balancing books and a coffee cup but also insisting on holding the cigarette between her fingers. Then I hit the GO bus stand and 3 guys standing in line taking those "precious" puffs before they had to get on the bus for about an hour or so. That brings the count to 8. (The category of smokers I call the "bus-line" smokers are the most interesting because they will often miss the bus if they haven't finished their smoke instead of just stubbing the damn thing out and getting out of the cold and onto the bus. The logic evades me). Then there was some peace. I could actually breath in the cold winter air. But the peace only lasted till I hit another entrance and another set of doors. 3 more people smoking at the entrance to the Schulich building. So, there we have it...11 smokers on the way to Schulich.

I tell ya, I can't escape it. Not at home and definitely not outside. I think I may have to threaten to move out to get my dad to quit but I doubt if it'll work. I think I'll take up permanenet residence in a public building and never go outside (too extreme you say? what is a person to do?) The sad thing is, the smartest of men (I mean a general men..women are not excluded) smoke and quite heavily. Now, I don't know if smartness has a direct link to smoking and killing yourself, slowly but surely, or if the smart ones in this world think that they need some vice to set off how smart they are. I will probably NEVER understand what the fascination with smoking is. I've heard excuses like "oh, its good for relieving stress". What are you trying to say? That those of us who don't smoke don't stress or have not found ways to deal with it. 15-20 years ago if they'd said "its cool" I would have agreed but not today. Not with all we know now. The worst thing I heard related to this was a piece on a Pakistani radio station not so long ago (webcasts..woohoo!). The reporter asked a group of girls in their late teens/early twenties why they smoked and they said "Oh, you know everyone has problems and stresses. Some related to school, others to relationships and life. We do it 'cause it helps. It probably doesn't but its a mental thing. We think it does so we smoke. We all smoke." Then he asked a 16 year old guy why HE smoked and he said something that really made me sit up. He said "Oh, I do it because its cool. These days a lot of people are doing drugs 'cause its the cool thing to do. You know, so if its the cool thing to do then probably will do it". Can you imagine the SHOCK I was in? Unbelievable in this day and age. Somebody has to tell these kids that "cool" is NOT stupidly following what a few influential kids around you are doing. I think someone needs to air those anti-drug use and anti-smoking commercials from the "truth" organization in Pakistan. We need to make the problems public instead of treating them as taboo. OK, I know I have a penchant for rambling so I will stop now and pursue that accounting assignment that I initially logged on to do. Went off on a complete tangent from accounting. *SIGH*.

Song playing on MP3 Player: "The blower's daughter" by Damien Rice