There’s something oddly romantic about the old smoking sections. You’d walk into a restaurant, and they’d ask you, “Smoking or non?” as casually as asking if you wanted fries with that. It was normal. Social. Expected. A smoke was part of the meal—like dessert for the damaged.
Those little zones of secondhand rebellion weren’t just places to smoke. They were places to be. Places to think. Talk. Meet strangers you’d never speak to otherwise. And that’s where the concept of smoking buddies comes in.
Smoking buddies weren’t always your friends. Often, they were just familiar faces with the same bad habit. People you’d see on the smoke break at work, or outside the building in the rain, huddled together like nicotine survivors. They knew what it meant when you said, “Rough day?” and pulled out your pack. No explanation needed. Just shared struggle and shared smoke.
There’s a strange comfort in those connections. It’s the kind of unspoken bond that doesn’t require eye contact or life stories—just a lighter and a nod. You become part of a tribe. A coughing, wheezing, sarcastic little tribe with an addiction problem and great stories.
But here’s the thing—those sections are gone now. And a lot of those buddies moved on. Some to vaping. Some to patches and gum. Some to cemeteries.
I miss the community, sometimes. But I don’t miss what came with it—the dependency, the excuses, the lie that smoking was just “something we did to take the edge off.” Because it wasn’t just that. It was something taking from us—quietly, constantly.
Today’s Progress:
Today I backslid a lot. I went to bed after smoking several, and I woke up to even more. The cravings were louder than reason. I got on the bus to buy a sandwich, trying to ground myself in something normal. I’m tapering down today—not a total success, not a total disaster.
Not a failure. Just another warning. A reminder that addiction is patient, sneaky, and opportunistic. But I’m still in the fight.
Tomorrow I have a cessation class. A fresh chance to be inspired. A place to get back up, even if I stumbled today. And maybe—just maybe—meet a new kind of smoking buddy. The kind that helps you quit.
by Dan and Bonkers
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I want to quit smoking