Cigarettes are bad for your health. There’s no denying that, but if there’s one thing which I think cigarettes are great for – getting conversations going. Great conversations have started from someone asking for or offering someone a light or a stick. This little stick in your hand holds a lot of power. Sometimes it’s as simple as asking someone, “wanna go for a fag?” or saying “hey, you smoke too!”.

Maybe I’m imagining things but I think there’s some unspoken bond between smokers which makes it easy to strike up conversation. Be it talking about work, your night out, or just life in general – smoking seems to put people at ease and in a position where they can comfortably say what’s on their mind. Notice how smokes light up before they start talking about something heavy?

Smokers are also almost always nice enough to share their cigarettes with you. Even if you’re a complete brokeass stranger in a foreign land (true story).

Sure, not everybody enjoys smoking, and some people will even tell you off for doing so. But the number of people I’ve met who were annoyed by cigarettes is fewer than the number of people I’ve had great conversations with while smoking.

I’m not here to advocate smoking (do it if you want to, it’s your life) but it’s just something I’ve noticed since I picked it up.

Haven’t met many people through vaping yet, but I have received random high-fives from complete strangers which I thought was pretty weird. Nobody ever high-fived me for smoking.

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PS After a while I decided, maybe what I’ve written is just my confirmation bias, and people who don’t touch cigarettes have just as interesting conversations.

PSS Also, it feels great to have one while it’s raining outside. Something about the cold, wet, miserable weather contrasting against the warm yet cooling sensation (if you smoke menthol) in your mouth.