Smoking: not a good decision

It was 4 a.m. when I awoke to a terrible noise.
At first, it was hard to tell what the awful sound was. When I realized it was my grandfather coughing, I was sickened.
It was a terrible cough, far worse than a cough caused by the flu. It was a cough coming from deep within his body. It was a cough that would never go away.
It was the cough of death.
I was 5 years old when I first remember hearing my grandfather's cough. By the time I was 6, my grandfather was dead.
I was too young to understand that my grandpa was never coming back. He would not be there to give me piggyback rides or to play games.
My grandpa was dead, and it was because of smoking.
Years later, I learned that the cause of my grandpa's death was lung cancer. It slowly developed because of his smoking a few cigarettes a day.
Because of what happened to my grandfather, I am never going to smoke. I have seen the result of many years of smoking. Yet, most people have not, otherwise there would be no smokers left in the world.
My advice: Never smoke.
One cigarette can turn a person into an addict. If you already smoke, then quit! I know it is easier said than done, but smoking can, and will, kill you if you do not stop.
Dangers: Cigarette companies do not want consumers to realize that when you inhale cigarette smoke, a chemical parade goes though your body's vital organs -- including the brain, lungs, heart and blood vessels.
You do not actually have to smoke to feel the effects of cigarettes. Second-hand smoke is just as dangerous.
When my grandfather smoked, he simultaneously made everyone in his household susceptible to the diseases and problems caused by smoking. Smoking is unfair to the rest of the world. We want to be able to breathe clean air.
Nothing positive can be said about smoking. Some smokers say it relaxes them, but that has been proved false. After a while, a tolerance builds up so that smokers need more and more cigarettes to feel the same results.
My grandpa smoked almost a pack a day, which is a lot of money and a lot of damage. Smoking does not help your life; it merely makes you forget about it for a while. You merely poison your body so that you have to worry about more important things -- like dying of lung cancer.
If my grandpa had not smoked so heavily, he might still be alive today. He would be able to be a part of my life. Smokers not only harm themselves, but they harm the people around them.
The next time you have a chance to smoke, remember that smoking is deadly for the body. You probably will die earlier because of it. Do you want to put your family through that?
I agree with Paul Provenza's quote about the surgeon general's warning on cigarette packs: "If you saw that warning label on any other product you wouldn't go near it. It's like looking at the warning label on Drano -- 'Harmful or fatal if swallowed' -- and thinking, 'Well, I'm down to three cans a week. It relaxes me.'"
XJulie, 16, is a junior at Lakeview High School in Cortland, where she participates in cross country and the drama, ski, French, Interact and Senior Beta clubs and is a reporter for the school newspaper.