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Journalism Award Winner: Spring 2000: Second Place

As senior Cary Guzman heads for school every morning, she satisfies an aching craving. Not for a chicken biscuit or sweet tea from Bojangles, rather for a Newport.

Shortly after Guzman began smoking in eighth grade, she started experiencing such cravings, which cause her to become temperamental. “I get really mad and I can’t control my anger if I don’t have a cigarette,” Guzman said.

Guzman started the habit because her brother and best friend smoked. “I was always around them and they were smoking, so I was curious and tried it,” she said.

Like Guzman, more and more teens are starting to smoke. A recent survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that 38.5 percent of North Carolina high school students smoke occasionally or regularly, a 22 percent increase since 1993.

The Falcon’s Cry conducted its own survey and found that 27 percent of Jordan students smoke occasionally or regularly. Those who smoke daily puff away on an average of 10 cigarettes a day.

Senior Lauren Henderson began smoking when she was 13, the age most Jordan smokers start the habit.

Like Guzman, Henderson began because she was curious about the cigarettes she had grown up around. “Since my dad and brother smoke, I was always around smoking and soon I got addicted too,” she said.

But Henderson did not always enjoy cigarettes. “When I was younger, I hated it when my dad smoked,” Henderson said. “Sometimes I would even cry because I didn’t like the smoke.”

A few years later, when Henderson began hanging around her brother and his friends more, she started to find smoking appealing. “I really looked up to my brother, so I started to smoke too,” Henderson said.

Impressing others often motivates young smokers. “I started smoking to show off to whoever,” sophomore Billy Shipley said. Since he began smoking at age 8, Shipley has now progressed to a pack of Camel Lights a day.

Senior Greg Pendergraft, who has been smoking since seventh grade, said he blames his smoking habit on peer pressure. “Friends kept [smoking], so I started smoking and after a while it just became natural,” Pendergraft said.

Although peer pressure may be the main reason kids start smoking, using cigarettes to relieve stress seems to be why teens continue the habit.

“[Smoking] keeps the stress down,” Pendergraft said. “If I didn’t have as much stress, I probably wouldn’t smoke as much.”

Guzman also thinks she would have fewer nicotine cravings if she had less stress. She and Pendergraft cite school, parents and work as their major sources of stress.

Henderson also finds cigarettes calming. “[Smoking] relieves my nervousness and anxiety,” she said. “I smoke as soon as I wake up, before bed, when I go out and when my friends aren’t with me.”

When Henderson is not smoking, she says her body gives her signals to let her know she needs a cigarette. “Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night because my body is telling me I need a cigarette,” she said.

Henderson continues smoking even though it has led to asthma and bronchitis. She now has to carry an inhaler with her at all times.

She had to tried to quit several times because of her medical problems and because her grandfather died from emphysema. “The longest I’ve gone [without a cigarette] is a few days,” she said.

Henderson does not see herself quitting any time soon. “The longer you’ve been addicted to something the harder it is to quit,” she said.

Shipley has also had trouble quitting because his friends constantly smoke around him, which weakens his will power. “I’d start fiending for them and then I get one little drag [my desire for a cigarette] gets bigger and bigger,” Shipley said.

However, Shipley does not want to see himself smoking when he gets older. “Hopefully, I won’t be smoking the rest of my life,” Shipley said. “I need to get some Nicotrol . . . but who knows when that’s going to be.”

Guzman is pretty sure that, at some time, she will eventually stop smoking. “I’m probably going to have a lot more stress when I get older and I really need to learn another way to deal with my stress,” she said. Also, Guzman said she does not want to be smoking when she grows up and has a family because it would be a bad influence on her kids. “I don’t want to be 50 and still puffin away,” she said.

Copyright © 2000

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