Nowadays so many people smoke that I can hardly imagine our world without cigarettes. They smoke for years or even for the whole life because it's not easy to give up, though everyone knows how harmful smoking is. They usually confirm it's very easy to start but it isn’t really so.

Everything begins once with a single cigarette. I remember my first inhalation - it wasn't easy, I must say. This process is often accompanied with cough, wheeze, and tears. Nevertheless, many of us try and try again until… here we are: in the line of inveterate smokers!

Some people begin smoking because they just want to. For some reason they buy cigarettes, look for an appropriate place, time, and company and... make their first inhalation. However, I think in most cases the first steps of becoming a smoker happen accidentally. Many people were not going to smoke at all; it happened occasionally. How? Here is an example.

It's not very polite to talk much about myself but I'll break this rule to tell you how I began smoking. I was 15 and smoking wasn't included in my plans for the future. Once there was a trip to the Carpathian Mountains organized in our school. I was glad to be in the group; however, one thing embarrassed me a lot: all the others were older than me. My mom was also confused by this fact and repeated constantly, "They will teach you bad things..."

Well, she was right. We spent three days in the Carpathian Mountains and I happened to smoke my first cigarette during those days. The thing was that I had a terrible toothache one morning. I was suffering from pain when one of the girls-smokers advised me to gather much cigarette smoke in my mouth and keep it inside for some time in order for pain to pass. How stupid I was to believe her and to do as she said. It didn't help, of course, though I tried again and again... Well, toothache didn't pass, but I started to smoke that day and I am still a smoker.

The story about my friend Dima’s first acquaintance with cigarettes is almost anecdotal. Dima is 25; but he started to smoke at the age of 17. He, as well as me, became a smoker by chance.

When Dima was 16, he had a friend Alex, two years younger than he. Despite of the young age Alex smoked. One evening they were walking together and Alex was smoking. When they turned a corner Alex stopped rapidly and gave his cigarette to Dima. "Damn! It's my father!" he said. Really, Alex's father was approaching them. Fortunately, it was getting dark and he didn't notice the transmission of the cigarette.

"You smell of... cigarettes! Are you smoking, Alex?" "No, dad! It's Dima. He is," replied Alex and looked at his friend supplicately. His father gave a short and distrustful glance at Dima. The boy had nothing to do but to put the cigarette into his mouth and draw in... As soon as he had done it he began coughing, turned red, and tears appeared in his eyes. Alex’s father looked at him even more suspiciously. "I've just started", explained Dima when he stopped coughing. Surely, he didn't become a smoker after this only event, but this was the beginning.

I'm sure many people get a bad habit accidentally and consider it to be their fate. But everything is in your hands: if you really don't want to smoke you won't smoke, no matter how many inhalations you've already made. It was accidentally; now it's time to give up.

Katty, 24