I have smoked on and off since I was about 18(freshman at college). I bought my first pack of cigarettes at 14, but I never really inhaled...
Anyway, I go through phases. I'll start smoking, smoke for a few months, and then quit for a year. I've been on the longest smoking streak that I've had in a long time, here recently, though.
I started smoking back in August when my in-laws were here and my cousin gave me one of her cigarttes. Here it is at the end of March, and I'm still smoking. I smoke a maximum of about four cigarettes per day, though, so not TOO bad, although any smoking at all is horrible.
I mean, here I am, raised in tobacco country. I come from a line of tobacco farmers that started farming it when they got off the boat from England in 1622. All four of my grandparents smoke or have smoked. Most of my great-aunts and great-uncles smoke, my uncle smokes, etc. etc. Some have died of lung cancer, some have had strokes due to smoking, and of course, emphysema.
I always swore I'd never smoke, but when I got into college, it was hard to not smoke when I had friends all around me who did. The good thing about me, though, is that I can quit cold turkey. I can put them down and leave them if I want to. I never "wig out" if I can't have a cigarette. I went a week without one a couple of weeks ago, and I didn't miss them. My cousin comes around, gives me one, and I start up again.
Oh well. I'll kick it for good one of these days.