Considering the Right Time

Image credits go to www.dnainfo.org

Image credits go to http://www.dnainfo.org

He was a lifetime smoker. He had never considered what came after. For more than 30 years he dragged, puffed, spent hundreds of dollars a year on new packs, flicked lighters on the hem of his jeans, and came to savor the smell of lighter fluid, and a freshly packed cigarette. He knew that it was time for a lifestyle change when breathing became more than an involuntary pituitary response. It pained him so, especially at the start of a new day. He wanted to quit so bad. For the first time, as he pondered the warning from his doctor, as he researched and recognized the signs of emphysema, as he considered the social stigma of being seen dragging around an oxygen tank, he wanted to quit. He wanted to live a hundred years.