Reasons for Smoking

Blake Thompson
Smoker’s Delight
As I went about doing my research and learning about a culture that I include myself in, I realized that the older generations of smokers didn’t mind sharing tales of how they started and didn’t seem embarrassed or cared at the fact that they smoked cigarettes. However on the flip side when I talked with people around my own age or a little older or younger I noticed that they felt like I was judging them, it took me explaining myself to them as being a smoker too for them to realize that I wasn’t judging them in anyway, but merely just looking for data about the smoking culture. I thought at first it would be easier to talk with some of the older men and women that I knew to begin conducting my research because I felt they would be more willing to discuss with me their lives and how smoking became part of it. After I talked to the parents and single adults I knew that smoked, I worked my way to some of my friends who were smokers, and then a couple of my sister’s friends whom are underage but still manage to have a smoke when they need them. As I conducted my interviews with the adults there were a few problems I encountered at first, which some didn’t really make sense but I was able to settle everything to keep my data useful. One adult didn’t feel comfortable sharing some of her past experiences that led her into smoking, which I understood, so in order to make her comfortable we just talked about everyday things for awhile until she was ready to open up and talk with me about it. Another adult I spoke with didn’t believe me that I was only doing this for a college essay; he seemed to believe that I was trying to figure out his life and was going to do something illegal or something, which I found very strange and ridiculous. All it took was merely showing him the sheet that explains what exactly I was writing and interviewing for, and after he found out he turned very read and lit up a cigarette which in a way was good....