I smoked for the first time at a pool party when I was 14. I was sitting cross-legged on a patch of dry grass in my dripping bathing suit when an older girl offered me a cigarette. I probably didn’t inhale correctly, and I disliked the ashy taste that lingered in my mouth afterward. I didn’t understand the appeal—how could anyone be addicted to something so unsavory? Nevertheless, over the next few years, I became a smoker.
