It started with just one  

being in my early 20’s young and naive I did it for the fun 

my friends and I had no shame

one little cigarette couldn't cause us much pain

We inhaled the tobacco into our virgin lungs

This is where it all begun

 

 

I started smoking 2 a day, my mom found out with such disarray 

“Are you insane?” is what she scrame at the top of her lungs

 breaking every wall of trust that we had created throughout the years

couldn't she see this was the new me

 

“Why didn’t you quit, why’d you go for that other cigarette?

Smoking is not just a simple metaphor”

 

It came down to 3 a day 

and that’s when my mom, came to say 

“you need to knock it off with this little teenage phase”

But little did she know this was more than just a stage

 

“Why didn’t you quit, why’d you go for that other cigarette?

Smoking is not just a simple metaphor”

 

 

Everyday I found myself smoking 1/2 a pack

Friends and family were always on my back

“You need to stop”, they would plead 

Tears dripping down their face 

“I think she might leave 

To start a new life in a path of her own despairs”  

 

“Why didn’t you quit, why’d you go for that other cigarette?

Smoking is not just a simple metaphor”

 

 

After several months, I saw myself smoking a pack a day

I didn't know what to say but I could feel it aching me away

“Every day I heard the constant wheezing and hoarseness in her voice”

But then I realized it was all because of my own choice 

“She probably feels like Friends and family had all gone away”

It felt like cigarettes were the only ones to stay 

 

“Why didn’t you quit, why’d you go for that other cigarette?

Smoking is not just a simple metaphor”

  

 

It was weeks, months, years before we even knew.

I wouldn’t listen to their pleads, and still I would proceed

To light the cigarette that would get me 3 inches closer to my death

Thinking that everything is fine and crime less.

Until one day, it decides it’s my time to pay.

“She started to lose weight without even trying and the cough that haunted her never went away”

It was then when I was diagnosed with lung cancer at the earliest stage.

 

 

 

1 in 29 people may develop lung cancer and the odds are only higher if you’re smoker. One of those 29 can be anyone; the person right next to you; someone in this room; your mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, future children.  

We’re all at risk.

I was at risk & that’s when I decided to quit

because smoking was more than just a simple metaphor.