I guess since becoming pregnant with my first child I've noticed how many children are really around me. The reality of it all should have hit when I realized, Hey: You're 16 and pregnant, but it didn't. It hit me when I met this kid, about 9 or ten years old, whose tiny hands were having a tough time with the lighter he was using to light his cigarrette. A cigarrette he claimed to have stolen from his mom.

Now, I'm not totally unfamiliar with the fact most of the people I know who smoke started smoking at age eleven. I know from experience, however, that we have a school system that just so happens to enforce the idea onto these kids that smoking can and will kill you. Why these kids end up starting smoking is beyond me.

A popular theory is that they see their parent doing it, so they do it too. But what 12 or 13 year old actually thinks that something his parents do is 'cool'? None, that I know of.

Maybe they figure it makes them look more grown up. I personally never had a smoking habit. It was just gross to me. I watched kids I grew up with get to the point where they wanted nicotine so badly they'd pick up cigarrette butts from the ground. Very attractive.

I moved to Ontario when I turned 13. I started grade eight and met kids that were veteran marijuana smokers. I had never even had friends who knew people that smoked weed up until then. It was definitely a culture shock, for lack of a better definition.

I wonder what makes all these kids so susceptible to things that damage their bodies.

It really makes you wonder how the next generation will act.

About the author: Leslie is a 16 year old mother-to-be who enjoys writing and music.