Law Students Are Smokin'

I'm always surprised when I see fellow law students standing outside with a cigarette in their mouth, heads partially covered in a bubble of smoke. I mean, here are smart people who study Supreme Court decisions, engage the class in discussions of public policy, hold passionate ideas about what is best for our country, members of law review and moot court and they constantly throw their lungs in front of a bus several times a day.

TRUST ME, I understand the chronic alcoholism that's rampant among law students. That I get! If I wasn't pregnant, law school would drive me to the bottle too, as it has in the past. But smoking? It's completely beyond me. These people know it's bad for them, they know the perils and unpleasantries awaiting them in the future. Yet, they happily don wide smiles and light up.

Unlike Chicago, where I was surprised at how common smoking was, Seattle is full of yuppies and hippies and health freaks. Smoking in Seattle is a great evil- I will even go as far to say that peer pressure in Seattle favors non smokers. Of course, in high school there were those kids who crossed Highschool Road just so they could be off campus and smoke without fear of campus police but those were the rebels, the self proclaimed "bad kids."

So why do these few law students continue to smoke? Is it addiction? It is just their one vice? We all have at least ONE vice that we know is bad. But no matter their reason for smoking, I would think that out of all people THEY would be smart enough to extinguish such a deadly habit. Do they think about how their decision is going to affect their kids and granchildren years from now? They might have to talk to their loved ones through a hole in their neck. They might have to say goodbye much too soon. They could be plagued with constant bad breath for the rest of their lives. Of course, those are all "mights" and it's hard to fathom a "might" actually happening to us.

I'm not judging them. I know I don't always make the best decisions so it's not my place to judge anyone. I'm just saying that I don't understand it. Once I tried to smoke when I was slightly buzzed, it was too hard. It took too much breathing coordination and inhaling that stuff was gross. That's when I realized just how nasty smoking is. But law school is pretty nasty too, and we're all doing that...