Smoking is nasty. I’m sorry. If I offend you with that, I am not meaning to target you, but really, it is gross. The smell, the look of it, and the health effects are certainly terrible. However, smoking has a new counterpart, vaping, and this is considered cleaner and less harmful. But is that really true? I am very unsure, especially because of my vaper friends.

Some of my friends began vaping in high school. It was actually during quarantine when they picked up the habit because I remember being really surprised when I met up with them for the first time after quarantine and half had vapes. I thought it was stupid and I still do, but I did not think too hard into the situation because I thought it would not affect their lives too much. However, I was definitely wrong.

It turns out, vaping greatly affected them. It began with making them addicted. Soon after they started, they began “craving” their nicotine and would begin stressing and becoming antsy when they were in school, unable to use their device in class. Then it developed into their taking “bathroom breaks” during class to use their vapes. This escalation happened quickly, and they were suddenly addicted without realizing it. But the effects of the vape started to show in their athleticism. All of my friends are decently athletic, but the ones who began vaping started losing their endurance and would become out of breath while throwing a football or during gym class. This was frightening because it was so atypical and it showed there was a very significant and negative impact on their bodies because of vaping.

Clearly, this is not healthy for you. But part of the problem is that once you start, it is very tough to stop. My friends have become addicted, and for a while, when they would say “ I can stop any time,” I would believe them, but now when I see them hitting their device every 5 minutes and losing their minds when they do not have it for a day, I know there is a problem.

So if you have not already, do not vape. It is pointless, and if you have any desire to keep your health and stay active, all you would be doing is hurting yourself.

Is being on your phone or computer too much bad for your health? I am starting to think it is. We often hear about the blue light screens being bad for people’s eyes, and I can attest, that is definitely true. We all know that feeling of staring at a screen for hours at night, whether it is from cramming the last few pages of an essay before 12, or mindlessly scrolling through Instagram until 3. When we put the device down and look at something other than the screen, our eyes and mind feel drained. I always feel like my eyes are extremely dry, and I have trouble focusing on things I look at. Often, when I close my eyes and try to sleep after being on my phone at night, I feel my eyes burn from finally getting a blink in after 10 minutes.

Now I know, just from experiencing it myself, that it cannot be healthy to be on your phone long enough for your eyes to burn. But I think there are also issues with being on your device too much other than just the light. Things like social media and advertisements on the devices are meant to be addicting and draw you in for hours. Think of Tik Tok, they have algorithms written to be extremely addictive, and this addiction can be like any other form of addiction. If you find yourself thinking that you will go on an app for only a few minutes, and then find an hour of your day has suddenly vanished, you might be in the midst of an addiction.

From my experience, I can attest that many people are addicted without knowing. My roommate, for example, would spend hours a day last semester on his phone, just scrolling Tik Tok. Finally, he noticed the issue and noticed the pointless time-suck, and has begun limiting his phone time. And this is a really helpful thing included on my phones. There are timers you can set to limit how long you are on your phone.

So my advice would be to use these timers. Do not let yourself be sucked into wasting valuable time from your day and life into something as monotonous and boring as your device. And of course, there is no issue with being on your phone, but be cognizant of when it becomes excessive because at that point it becomes a nuisance and in my opinion, hurts your health.

I think being happy is possibly the most important thing in life to health. It affects everything in life, really. Think about whenever you are happy. You are on top of the world and almost feel like you are glowing. This affects your mood for the rest of the day and influences your actions. Would you go out somewhere at night if you were upset or happy? Would you be more likely to talk to someone new? Your mood affects everything you do, so it makes sense that it would also affect your health.

The biggest piece of health that it affects is your mental health. And this makes sense, right? Your emotions are controlled by your brain, and it affects your mood and behavior. Since mental health is such an important topic and is being better understood every day, the large influence of emotions on mental well-being is at society’s forefront.

I would also argue, however, that being happy is a multitude of emotions. When you are nervous before trying something new, maybe before presenting in front of a large crowd, those nerves are not bad. You are still happy. I feel it is a mixture of multiple emotions that really create that happy feeling.

Another example of this might be after you finish a long project or something that was very time-consuming. The mixture of relief, pride, and satisfaction all combine together to make you feel happy. I know a great example of this that I can think of is the paradigm shift essay from last semester. That essay took hours to write and edit, and it involved deep thought. But after it was finished, I felt happy and relieved.

I would say that we most often feel happy after something good happens to us. When we are happy, we are also confident, and confidence typically brings more happiness. It seems to me like I get on streaks. When I am happy, good things happen to me and I gain more confidence, resulting in more good things. A great example of something that influences my happiness every day is the stock market. When the market is good one day, I feel great and it makes me feel good the rest of the day. But this is not the only thing that can make me happy, so even on down days, I try to look for something, anything, to make me happy. Thus, I would say that one of the most important things in life is staying happy because it really makes everything better.

My name is Mike and I am a caffeine addict. And no, I am not in an AA meeting right now. I am just willing to admit that I, like millions of others in the world, am addicted to caffeine. Granted, this is not nearly the worst thing to be addicted to, but it still gives me goosebumps thinking that I depend on something and not having it can greatly influence my mood and behavior. So, I bet you are wondering, how did my caffeine addiction start?

Picture me, a 7^th grader who grew up with coffee-drinking parents, smelling the fragrance of coffee lingering in the kitchen at 6 am while making my school sandwich. It has been around me my whole life, but my parents insisted that I should not drink it until I was older, but my time had come. I asked my mom if I could have a cup, and she thought for a moment, considering my situation as a tired 7^th grader awake at 6, and she caved. However, I will admit, I was responsible for the first 5 years of my life drinking coffee. For those years, I did not have an addiction. I only drank one cup a day, very rarely breaking that habit, and I felt as though I could quit drinking coffee any day and be fine.

Now, though… That is a different situation. I have become a caffeine addict mainly for two reasons. I had an 8 am last semester, so that should be self-explanatory, and I also started drinking Bangs. I know, I know, the Bang energy drinks are definitely not the best health choice, but can you blame me? I drink them before I go to the gym and they greatly amplify my workouts, so I feel like I am in some sort-of tradeoff situation. I drink the Bangs to get a better lift and become healthier from the lift, but the Bangs are, at the same time, making me less healthy. And which side of the tradeoff is healthier? I will never know.

However, I am planning to become less dependent on caffeine. I am starting by limiting the number of bang energies I drink to only one or two a week. Only when I really need a pick-me-up will I drink one. As it is with a lot of minor addictions like sugar and social media, it is about willpower if you want to quit. I know I have the ability to quit, it just comes down to this: am I willing to have a day or two of headaches? And THAT is a question I am not ready to face.