the other day-1

i learned how to smoke at the age of 17. it was during Christmas vacation in 1997, i was with my two elder cousins, nathan and teresa, who taught me how to smoke my first yosi. it was marlboro reds from a takatak vendor. the interesting thing is that teresa taught me like it was a technique or something that you have to remember, which is annoyingly funny but true. basically there are three steps:

1. sip the cigarette like you are sipping soda through a straw. don’t inhale it yet, just kinda let it linger inside your mouth
2. inhale the smoke
3. exhale

if you follow those steps, you won’t end up smoking hithit-buga like some people do. i think it was part of the yosi-is-cool-so-don’t-fuck-the-image thing. anyway, my first experience was like any other first-timer’s experience, i felt dizzy but in a good way. when i was a kid i never really despised smoking, both my parents smoked and so were majority of my titos and titas and the idea of trying to smoke never seemed a bad idea. i think it was half-curiousity and half-peer pressure. i really don’t remember but i remember buying another stick at a sari-sari store on that same afternoon and my cousins were laughing at me. and so it begins..