One day I'm walking down the street with my friends when we pass by another group of kids. They couldn't have been a year older than we were. Then one of them pulls out a cigarette, turns to us and says, "Any of you guys got a lighter?" I was speechless. I could not fathom the fact that someone who is just as old as I am - a freshman - was smoking a cigarette. That's stuff you expect to see on TV, not in front of your face.
Things like this are the result of what we see adults do. When we see older people acting ignorant, kids will copy them. When we see older people smoking and acting like hoodlums, kids will copy them. People don't realize that what kids see has a huge impact on what kids do.
So when we see our parents smoke, some of us will think that it's OK to do. Adults need to start doing better things so that they can set better examples for future generations.
Zack Lopez
Kahului
