24-year-old proud to be nonsmoker
By Terry Rindfleisch of the Tribune staff
Rochelle Lemke of La Crosse will celebrate her 24th birthday today smoke-free, her first birthday as a nonsmoker since her early teen years.
She is more active today, can keep up with her nieces and nephews and doesn’t get sick as often when she was a smoker. Lemke said she is proud to be a nonsmoker.
“I place more value on my health now.” she said. “I’m very happpy I quit.”
Lemke said she had enough of smoking cigarettes. The youngest of seven children, Lemke said no one in her family smokes, and her father quit smoking many years ago.
“One of my nieces told me I stunk, and I didn’t want to leave that impression with her,” she said.
Last year, one of her friends said she was trying to quit for the third time.
“She said how impossible it was to quit, and she told me I couldn’t do it,” Lemke said. “She’d always said she’d quit, and she couldn’t, so I thought I would.
“When a smoker says they’ll quit someday, someday is today,” she said.
Lemke quit cold turkey almost a year ago just before New Year’s Day.
She sent her friends an e-mail saying if they saw her with a cigarette in her hand, they should kick her butt. Lemke had cut back on her smoking before her quit date.
Lemke had headaches and nausea for some time after quitting.
“I got crazy sometimes, but you make the decision that you have to quit and keep quitting every day,” Lemke said. “There are days harder than others.
“It was hard to be around smoking friends, but I had a good support network in family and friends,” she said. “You owe your support network to live through this and keep telling yourself that you’re not a smoker.”
Lemke had one cigarette while trying to quit, and then never smoked again.
“That one cigarette was gross, it was awful,” she said. “You just can’t pick up one cigarette. I wanted a cigarette the next day, but I knew I couldn’t have it.”
Lemke was one in three American high school students who smoked cigarettes when she started smoking with her friends.
She still remembers the first time she inhaled because her friends had to show her how to do it.
“I puked, but it didn’t stop me,” Lemke said. “Kids don’t hear the stop smoking message and they don’t think they will get addicted.
“There was a certain amount of cool to smoking, and part of it was rebellion and making friends,” she said.
Lemke smoked a pack of cigarettes a day or more. She often smoked at lunch time or during study hall while in high school. Stress also triggered her smoking.
“It was easy to smoke and not get caught,” Lemke said. “I worked and went to school. I was not a wake-up smoker, but I’d like to light up after meals and during breaks.
“Everytime I picked up the cigarette, it was harmful,” she said.
Lemke said she didn’t smoke around her family and tried to hide it. She smoked in her bedroom with the windows open or with a fan running. She used body spray or lotion to cover the smell and always did her own laundry.
“My dad quit smoking for us kids, and I didn’t want to be disrespectful smoking around him,” she said. “My dad didn’t realize how often I smoked. No one wants to think their kids do things like smoking.”
Lemke said teen smokers don’t think much about nicotine addiction, but her addiction became a hazzle. “It was more of the constant nagging from myself that I have to buy cigarettes again tomorrow and I have to find enough money for cigarettes,” Lemke said.
“Smoking is not a joy, it’s an addiction,” she said. “It’s a temporary satisfaction like an after-dinner mint, but that’s not a good reason to smoke.”
Smokers have to care enough and be ready to quit, Lemke said.
“They can’t be forced or pushed,” she said. “Smokers realize how bad smoking is, but they often aren’t ready to quit. They have to remind themselves they are strong enough to quit.”
Her advice to smokers who say they will quit some day: “Some day is today, and don’t consider it, just do it. There’s nothing to consider. Ask yourself what good reliable reason is there to keep on smoking.”
Lemke said the urge to smoke has not gone away.
“But when I get the urge, I know smoking is something I don’t want after a while,” she said. “Some day I may not have the urge.”
She also looks at quitting smoking as a major accomplishment in her life.
“I quit smoking, what’s next?,” Lemke said. “What are the possibilities and what can I do next?”
Terry Rindfleisch can be reached at trindfleisch@lacrossetribune.com or (608) 791-8227.
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