As usual, the boy’s toilet at my school looks like it is on fire. It is break time and smoke is coming out from under the door. Lots of students are standing around in the toilet smoking cigarettes. To me, it doesn’t seem like the new law for not smoking in public places has reached our college yet.

It was in the newspaper the other week that the government is going to stop people smoking in public places, for example, in air-conditioned restaurants and public transport. If the policemen see someone in a restaurant smoking cigarettes, they can fine that smoker up to 2,000 baht. The owner of that restaurant may also get fined 20,000 baht.

The new law is now getting stricter every single day. The newspapers said that the government wants to bring down the number of smokers because they are worried that the number of teenagers smoking is going up very fast. Now there are altogether about 25 percent of Thai people who are smoking cigarettes. The statistics show that out of 10 males, there will be 4 that are smoking cigarettes.

Already on television they are not allowed to show people smoking. I was watching The Simpsons on cable TV the other day and they censored Bart’s aunts every time they tried to smoke. If the law works as well as they hope, for sure teenagers in the future will never think about starting to smoke because they won’t have so many bad examples around them like we do now.

Teenagers now are thinking that smoking cigarettes is nothing bad. They think that it is a normal thing to do in a group of friends. Some teenagers start their smoking habit because they want to be part of a group. For me, sitting around talking to my friends and smoking a cigarette is a nice thing to do after a hard day at school. Also, smoking a cigarette always helps me calm down when I am stressed.

Before you send me lots of letters, I do understand that although cigarettes can make me feel better in the short term, in the long run smoking isn’t good for my body. I am taking away from my life seven every time I smoke a cigarette. I am shortening my life and giving myself bad health too. Yes, I have read the pamphlets too.

I still remember my first time smoking. Now after looking back to the old days, I wish I hadn’t started this bad habit. Especially, as it was for a stupid reason. It was back in 2000, while I was still a good kid who was learning in the top class. I was learning in Grade 9 and still hanging out with my first girlfriend. Everything then was going very well. I had no problems with anything at all. But then suddenly, on my birthday, my girlfriend broke up with me. I was very sad and didn’t know what to do.

Finally, I decided to try and hurt her and make her feel wrong by doing everything she stopped me doing before. I remembered that the last thing she told me that she didn’t want me to do was "smoke" so I started to smoke my first cigarette. I was hurting myself and wished that she would come back. But, after I started to go down hill, she didn’t feel anything and didn’t come back.

At that time, I was smoking pretty hard and then one day I realized that I couldn’t stop smoking. I was addicted to cigarettes and couldn’t quit. I became very moody if I didn’t have any cigarettes and I wouldn’t do anything until I could get another cigarette. My health became very bad. I couldn’t run as far or as fast as I could before. From a gold medal runner at my school, I became one of those people that got tired very easily. My teeth were no longer real white and my hands were stained yellow.

Next week find out what happened when I was caught smoking at school.

Continued in Smoking at School II