Canada One year ago today...

...I quit smoking, cold turkey, no stop-smoking aids, after sucking back half a pack a day for 19 years. No more death sticks, I went home and re-thought my life.

I'm really proud of that, and I wanted to share, but more than that, I wanted to thank some people. I could not have done this without the help of my friends in FanForce, especially Alakin and Derisa. I had tried to quit years ago using the nicotine patch, and did quit for about 4 months, but long before I gave in and went back to my addiction, my friends all took it for granted that I didn't need their support anymore.

Well, not these guys, let me tell you. For the last 366 days (I had to pick a leap year, no less!) my friends in our FanForce chapter put up with my pleas, my begging for "just one, just today, of all days?" during the most stressful times, and NOT ONCE mocked me for it. Every time I mused aloud, "I really need a cigarrette", one of them would remind me that I wanted one, but I didn't need one. Every time the subject came up, they would celebrate my progress and success, even if I was miserable about it myself. I credit that kind of support for making me strong enough not to cave, not to cheat once, even if no one would have known that I'd cheated. 366 days, and not one puff has entered my lungs.

Thank you, my friends, for helping me kick this 19-year addiction.

Thanks for allowing me to sprint after a bus without feeling like crap for half an hour afterwards.

Thanks for letting me add another three notes to my upper singing range. (High C! Yay!)

Thanks for letting me feel like something other than a social pariah, or letting me not make you "hold the fort" at meetings and activities while I stepped outside for a quick break, and missed something cool.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to not smell like an ashtray all the time.

Thanks for keeping every cold bug from instantly turning into bronchitis.

Thanks for helping me save myself $1500 a year.

Thanks for keeping me from influencing my five-year-old daughter to mimick me by holding a popsicle stick between her fingers and taking "drags" off it while she's hosting a tea party for her dolls and teddy bears.

Thanks for letting me be her mom, and your friend, a lot longer than I would have been if I hadn't quit.

Thanks in advance for not stopping what you're doing tomorrow, or next week, or next year, if you hear me say, "I know what you're going to say, but honestly, I really could use a smoke right now..."

- Rani

 

and heres to 20 more!

 

Wow. tears and all. Thank you, babe, for ... well, everything.

You deserve the health and the money and the kudos, too.

Congratulations, and Happy Anniversary!


*Derisa*

 

Congradulations Rani, well done. And kudos to your friends who helped you.

 

Congrats.

 

Big congrats.

Now can you guys get my mom to quit? lol

 

Thats really something to be Proud of

I know very few people that would be able to Kick the habit, just like that, Cold Turkey.

Congrats!

 

Congratulations! It's something to be proud of.

It took a near-death, getting cancer twice and an operation to make my father stop smoking his two packs of cigarettes each day.

~*~ LJS ~*~

 

Wow! That is something to be really proud of, I'm quite in awe of your inner strength!

 

Awesome

 

Woah, is this thread still kicking around?

Coming up on 18 months now, and still cigarette-free! Thanks everyone!

 

And you're still awesome. I wish the people in my life could do what you did.

And something I didn't notice originally.

Thanks for letting me add another three notes to my upper singing range. (High C! Yay!)

Very nice! I'm around there myself

 

at the end of the month it will be 19 years for me. quit when I was 17. my newest fight to quit something was pop, its been since febuary since i had any.

 

Congrats
I actually quit pop for a whole year..and then stopped and started drinking it again when I started working at a movie theater. Then came to my senses and stopped again