Senior Elizabeth Nethaway works at

the Prince Hookah Lounge and has observed the habits of

smokers.

The Alliance, Neb., native said

smokers wait to light up until they are next to someone who is also

smoking. 

“It’s something you got in common,”

Nethaway said. “‘Hey, can I bum a lighter? Sure, let’s talk about

something.’ It’s a real good way to strike up a conversation and

make new friends.”

She added that she smokes the most

when she is at work. 

Nethaway said that her parents smoke

and she always felt comfortable around smokers. She started smoking

last November because the people she was around were

smoking. 

“I tried one and liked it,” she

said.

The same social aspect of smoking

can make it harder for a smoker trying to quit.  

“If you are around a bunch of

smokers and trying to quit, it is harder,” Nethaway said. “If one

person lights up a cigarette, everyone lights up.”

Nethaway also said that she smokes

more when she is around other people. 

“I don’t smoke much by myself,” she

said.

Nethaway, who is now trying to quit,

said that she doesn’t smoke around her boyfriend at all because he

isn’t a smoker.

Louisville junior Jasmine Taylor

started smoking when she was a senior in high school.  

“My friends smoked and that’s when

we all started drinking and those go hand in hand,” Taylor

said.

Taylor said that she isn’t a heavy

smoker, going through a pack in two weeks.  

“There is definitely a social

aspect, when there is nothing to do, people are like, ‘Oh you want

to smoke a cigarette?’” Taylor said.

Taylor said that she smokes more in

a group and rarely by herself.  

Matt Whitman, a senior from Austin,

Texas, said that he started smoking his freshman year of

college. 

“Sure, I smoke more frequently when

I’m around people,” he said.  “I would say that if you talk to

other people, I’d be willing to place money they say that they

smoke more when other people are smoking.”