I Believe in Making Choices

I believe everybody has the right to do what they want with their lives. People make choices everyday both big and small. Like how both my grandpas chose to smoke but one decided to quit and is still living because of that, while my other one chose to continue to smoke even after he was sick and died because of that choice.

I don’t have many memories of my grandpa when he wasn’t sick. He was diagnosed with emphysema and also had heart problems. These were both direct causes of his choice to smoke. He was limited in where he could go. He had to carry an oxygen tank around and ride in a wheel chair or a scooter. Later, when he got worse he was confined to the house and eventually could hardly get out of bed. He continued to smoke even after he found out he was sick which only made his condition worse. He eventually died at 63 from those health problems.

My grandma has made the decision to continue to smoke even after she saw what it did to her husband. Fortunately she has no real complications and continues to live even though she made the decision to smoke.

My other grandpa smoked for forty years but finally made the decision to quit. He has no medical problems because of that, is 81, and still living his life without any problems from smoking.

After seeing what smoking can do, and what it has done to my family in the past, I have made the decision not to smoke. Everybody makes decisions every single day of their lives. Some people think about the consequences of their actions. I am one of those people who think through the consequences and therefore am making the choice not to smoke.

I believe in making choices. I believe in choosing to not smoke.