Do You Gotta Light? (Rant #7)

I’ve quit smoking, but not because it was bad for me. I just didn’t feel the need to do it anymore. At first, it was the recreational puff of smoke that kept me drawn to the cancer stick for as long as it did. I thought I finally figured it out. People smoke because it’s relaxing. Then, whenever I found someone to smoke with, they didn’t find it relaxing as I did. They were “social smokers”.
Social smoker: they prefer to smoke in public in order to stand out as “cool” and accepted by other smokers. They think they’re better than smokers because they only smoke when others are around. They only smoke when others are around in order to “impress” them and show them an “edgy” side that most wouldn’t expect of them.
It’s stupid. Smoking isn’t cool. It’s extremely hazardous to anyone’s health and is normally universally frowned upon by many. And you’re doing this to be cool?
I don’t smoke to be cool. I smoke because I have a hard time finding time to be stable minded and smoking seemed to be one placebo I was willing to try. It worked for a bit, but after awhile I found it more stressful to deal with having to purchase them, purchase a lighter, finding time to myself, and smoking somewhere I'll not be bothered. Then I constantly came across all of these phonies--mostly at school and people I barely know--who smoke or drink in order to be cool. It’s sickening knowing people would so deep in order to be seen in a light brighter than the one they’ve already developed just being themselves.
And it’s not just smoking: This whole ordeal has opened my eyes to just how fake people can act in order to get attention, false acclamations, or to be considered “one of us”.
You are not one of us. I don’t even know what “one of us” is.
You can only be cool if you act like yourself without any worries as to how you are perceived.
I hated myself every time I lit up, so why would you praise it? I can’t stop the epidemic of the “social smoker”, but in the meantime, I can say one thing:

To all “social smokers”: Fuck you.