My second attempt at stopping smoking was also a disaster. After the nicotine patch failure, I decided to stop smoking cold turkey. I ceased buying cigarettes, threw away all of my matches and lighters, and gave away all of my ashtrays. I was determined to get rid myself of this culprit finally.

I lasted for a week, which was fantastic, especially considering I had chosen the worst week of my life to stop smoking: final exams week. On the sixth day of that week, I started crying for no reason; I would just start to cry while doing anything, even eating, and suddenly tears would run down my face. I didn’t know what was happening to me. I called my parents and told them that I couldn’t seem to stop crying, and after a little benevolent interrogation, I mentioned to them that in addition to dealing with my final exams, I had also decided to quit.