AVA-CLAIRE BORING
Special to the Leader
PSA: I do not condone the use of nicotine when you are underage!
ONLY if you’re above the age of 21 and your mommy is okay with it.
Everyone knows a smoker, whether it’s your mom, grandparent, next-door neighbor or some dude you pass on the highway who flicks his dead cigarette butt onto your windshield.
Smoking is everywhere, and it has been for a while.
Vaping became popular in the early 2000s, but did you know the first documented e-cigarette was almost a hundred years ago?
Pretty neat…
I remember finding out about vapes because my best friend’s cool, emotionally unavailable stepdad vaped.
I rediscovered it later on in middle school when I couldn’t go into the bathroom without being smothered by a fruity scented cloud.
Every cool kid in school vaped for a hot minute, and I don’t even think they liked it.
It seemed like vaping was the cool thing to do for a while, and some adults switched from smoking normal cigarettes to vapes because they thought it was healthier (and tastier! Mmmm, blue raspberry-flavored cloud).
It seemed like you couldn’t go anywhere without someone vaping, and I know that for sure.
Once, I was in the Burger King drive-thru, and the worker blew a cloud of vapor onto my food before handing it to me.
Vaping absolutely dominated the social scene for a good 20 years.
This seemed like the new norm until cigarettes made an impactful comeback.
I’m not sure if anyone has noticed, but vaping is SO out, and smoking is SO back!
It’s come to a point where you can be at a party and see more people outside smoking cigarettes than inside vaping. And why is this sudden resurgence taking young adults by storm?
Because it looks cooler!
It is so much easier to coordinate outfits with a brown and white cigarette between your fingers than a hot pink and green fog machine clenched in your fist.
I truly believe with every cell of my being that cigarettes have made such a massive comeback with young adults simply because they think it makes them cooler.
It’s not for the taste, that’s for sure.
With the resurgence of the coolest people you know smoking in a cashmere sweater that they pretend isn’t itchy, I’m left wondering if vaping will make a comeback, or if vaping is out for good!
History always ends up repeating itself.
Welcome back, cigarettes.
We missed you!