Let me establish that I’m all for the freedoms and whatnot that we have as people. You are free to smoke as much nicotine and tobacco as you want.

But I don’t want it in my face, or even on my campus.

If you’re like me, you’re one of those people who thinks that a headache might be a brain tumor, or the random pain that happens on the left side of your chest is a heart attack. I have a lot of irrational fears, and having something be wrong with my body is one of them.

Throughout my elementary school years, I was somewhat overweight, and I was picked on. A lot. So, I got my stuff together and got healthy. I lost the weight and felt great. I avoided unhealthy foods (for the most part), unhealthy living habits and products that contain nicotine or tobacco. However, even with all these precautions, poor health hit my family in a hard way.

When I was 13, my grandmother died from systemic scleroderma, an autoimmune disorder that led her to use an oxygen tank. It took a huge toll on my family, especially me and my dad. That same year, my uncle had a heart attack in his mid-30s. Ever since then, my parents and I have done our best to stay in shape and make sure that we’re all healthy enough to support each other.

I don’t think smoking or vaping should be allowed on campus. Yes, you have the freedom to buy those products and smoke them whenever you please, but by doing so on campus infringes on someone else’s personal space. Someone who avoids those chemicals and toxins who now has to breathe it in because you blow a giant cloud as you walk back from class.

As someone who is one of those people who avoids those products, I believe that we should begin the conversation about removing them from campus. I would even accept a designated smoking area on or near campus. And I cannot be the only one that feels this way. I believe that as students we have the power to make changes like this possible, but it has to start somewhere.

There’s nothing wrong with you smoking a cigarette or “juuling”. However, it’s been more noticeable now more than ever that some of the people who use these products on campus don’t take their surroundings into account when they blow a cloud of blue raspberry smoke in someone’s path.

I don’t believe that smoking should be allowed on campus, and I think that we should follow in the footsteps of other UW campuses and begin the ban.