Relationship Standards

[Angrboda]

I suppose like any other trait, the smoking question is up to you. I've known non-smokers who had no issue with loving a smoker. I'm an ex-smoker myself, four years quit. I don't mind the smell of smoke. I rather love it. Up until last winter, my best friend was a smoker, and I was quite glad when she'd smoke around me, because I got to vicariously smoke by way of the smell. However, if I met someone who smoked, even if they were interested in me, and I wanted them otherwise, I wouldn't date them. Smoking, the lifestyle, is nasty and dirty and unpleasant. Clothes smell. Apartments smell. Everything smells. I used to smoke in my car and even though I was a heavy smoker, I disliked the smell. And people who smoke are less healthy, often more sick, and given the health risks of smoking, odds are if you aren't a smoker and they are, you will end up burying them, probably after a long, painful bout with cancer or emphysema or heart disease. I'm sorry, but I see a lot of negatives in loving a smoker, and no real compensating positives. I have nothing against smokers and I'm not particularly averse to the smoke itself, or the occasional or transitional smell. But I don't want to lose my heart to someone for whom that is the probable and likely experience of loving them, knowing that once you start to love, odds are that you aren't going to stop loving them unless something else stops you.