My post to last week's QOTW
My first response to last week's QOTW would have been appropriate here, but anyway, I bring you this...

I'm a non-smoker, never have smoked, and never will smoke, but the last part wasn't always the case... At the tender age of 11, I decided I wanted to try inhaling from teh white cylinders. I knew about some of the dangers and knew they were supposed to be addictive (even though I did not know what they were like). I wasn't even thinking of doing it to show off to my mates - it was more out of curiosity than anything. Perhaps it was more the action of smoking than the smoking itself. But I was dead paranoid my parents would find out. I lived in a non-smoking household (so nothing to nick), buying them in a shop was out of the question, and I was afraid that if I used a cigarette vending-machine, someone would spot me.

Eventually, I somehow managed to get hold of a cigarette and some matches. For some reason, I chose to smoke it in a remote part of my school grounds during the lunch break where I would be totally alone. Because I had hidden it well, it was slightly crumpled. Now I had been anticipating this moment for ages so was beginning to shake. I was nervous and excited at the same time, but my nerves were winning. I got a match out and tried to light it, but I was trembling so much that I was incapable of lighting it. Light you bastard I kept thinking, but to no avail - I just couldn't light it. Ever try lighting a match when you're shaking all over? It's just not possible I tell you! Feeling slightly annoyed but more sheepish, I gave up and continued my lunch break. It was the last time I tried and didn't try again before I once and for all decided that I wanted to be a non-smoker. And that's how I avoided becoming a nicotine addict.

Won't apologise for length, will apologise for the anticlimax.
( mistaspakkaman and the inedible shifting caterpillars, Sat 22 Mar 2008, 0:54, Reply)