I remember that I heard from my dad’s friend that quitting cigarettes is maybe harder than drugs. He said that is because cigarettes are cheap and very easy to buy plus they are legal. I have been buying a pack of cigarettes for my dad since I was in kindergarten even though on every pack it says "DO NOT sell to anyone younger than 18 years old". It wasn’t a big deal; the shopkeeper always sells cigarettes to anyone who wants them.

Now, to come back to the toilet at my college. Someone shouts there is a teacher coming and everyone who is holding a cigarette has to quickly throw it away. The teacher tells the students to go to the far end of the toilet. When everyone is standing in a row, he walks towards us and starts to check our pockets.

I walk out of the toilet after he checks my pockets and takes away my lighter. I stand by the toilet door and watch him search other students. I feel sorry for some students who have their cigarette packs confiscated. Some of those packs he took from different students were still full. I see that the teacher quickly puts them in his own pocket!

The teacher finishes his search. Before he lets us go, he hits each student with a stick. I think we were lucky. It could have been worse.

I went to the canteen to buy some snacks to eat during the lesson. After we finished eating, we all felt like a cigarette so we walked down the steps to the girls’ toilet in the basement. It is not used any more because it is broken.

While we were walking into the toilet, I could smell that someone was already smoking there. We decide to tease that person by pretending that there was a teacher coming. We started to light our cigarettes and then two of my friends shouted out loud "Teacher, teacher is coming". We all waited to see the reaction of the person that was inside.

A few seconds later, the one inside walked out. We were all shocked after we saw who was smoking. It is that teacher who had searched us and took away my lighter. We were all thinking that we are going to get suspended for smoking again. But he walked out of the toilet without saying a word. What luck! We quickly finish our cigarettes just in case he changed his mind and came back.

While we were walking upstairs, my friend tpld me that the teacher didn’t suspend us because he broke the rules himself. He said that he remembered reading about it in a book. He said that teachers aren’t allowed to smoke inside the college the same as the students. If they want to smoke they have to go outside and walk to the top of the lane.

From now on, I am slowly going to cut down on how many cigarettes I smoke per day. I am hoping that one day I will be able to cut it down to one cigarette and then none at all. I think it will be better for myself if I do it straight away because I have been smoking for more than two years now and I am quite a heavy smoker. I am smoking on average about a pack or one and a half packs per day, which is about 20-30 cigarettes.

If you have read my "secret diary" on my web site you will know that I have tried to quit before and didn’t succeed but I will try harder this time. I promise. As soon as I can do that it will be better for my body and my health. Though I am sure it won’t be as good as it was before. Some things you cannot bring back. My advice to you is not to start at all. It is very very difficult to quit. Believe me, I know.