On the topic of quitting smoking...

Ever since I posted a few thoughts about my 10 year anniversary of quitting smoking, and my experiences online, I've wanted to add a very important "thank you" to someone who proved to be a special source of support. Sometimes support comes from unexpected places and that's what I found when I decided to finally kick my nicotine habit of 29 years.

In the spring of 2000, someone half the age of my addiction, and one too young to know much about addiction, stepped up and decided to be my personal coach, cheerleader, buddy, and mentor. My wise-beyond-his-years nephew, Colin, got all in my business (as the ubiquitous *they* say) and sent me instant messages, emails, notes and cards, and walked that difficult path alongside me. When I thought I wasn't going to be able to do it, he assured me that I could and I would. When I bemoaned my weight gain, he reminded me that if I could quit smoking then certainly I could lose the weight when the time came. He even planned a surprise celebration for me in honor of my first 100 days without cigarettes with my entire family gathered around to support my efforts. I still have some of his emails and the cards and a hand-lettered sign he made for me ten years ago. I'll always have his love and support in my heart, and sweet, fresh air in my pink, healthy lungs. Thank you, Colin. I couldn't have done it without you, my favorite oldest nephew.

PS: I took that picture of Colin peering through a rock formation on the Colorado National Monument, outside of Grand Junction, Colorado in 1997. It's without a doubt the best picture I've ever taken. Of the best oldest nephew. :)

Happy 10th anniversary to me. I hadn’t planned on doing this but after giving it some thought I decided I ought to post my thoughts here for two reasons. First, I couldn’t have quit without a website for those who have quit or are thinking of quitting, www.quitnet.com. There it is, plain and simple. The “Q” is where I found support and kindred spirits and laughs (lots of laughs) and made friendships that will last a lifetime. I will always owe a debt of gratitude to the Q members who blazed the trail ahead of me, who walked alongside me, and even those who came behind me.

Those who went before me gave me hope, inspiration, and support. They invested their valuable time and experience in my quit and gave me confidence, and I owed them a good try; those alongside me gave me support, encouragement, distraction, laughs (lots of laughs), were strong when I couldn’t be, and required that I be strong when they couldn’t be. Those who came after gave me a sense of obligation to pass along what had been given to me and added to my growing group of people who held me up as a role model. How could I let any of them down?

Second, I will always clearly remember how difficult it was for me to quit. I think sometimes in the early stages of our quits we believe that long-time quitters somehow had an easier time of it than we did. Bah humbug! It was every bit as difficult and sometimes even more difficult. Why, when I was a newbie I had to walk 10 miles through the snow just to get to my computer and when I reached it, it was dial-up, for crying out loud – gasp! Seriously, though, quitting is hard no matter how you slice it. But it does get easier to stay quit because, like most other things, we get better at those things we do often.

So if you smoke and you tell yourself you can’t quit – and if you tell that to yourself often – you’ll get better at not quitting. But if you stop smoking and tell yourself often that you used to smoke but you don’t anymore, you’ll get better at not smoking.

Take it from me. I’ve been not smoking for 10 years now and it sure is grand. Plus it’s pretty darned easy these days.

Oh, and because I earned every bit of them, here are my stats:

I’ve been quit for ten years, 21 hours, 9 minutes and 9 seconds. 127850 cigarettes not smoked, saving $30,364.58. Life saved: 1 year, 11 weeks, 2 days, 22 hours, 10 minutes.

One final note worth mentioning: it’s at the Q where I first took my online moniker, imeanit. The names I’d tried to register with were all taken and I was intensely committed to quitting, so “imeanit” seemed appropriate and it truly was.

Keep the quit, people!
imeanit

And a very important postscript: I owe a lot of my quit to three very special people I met at the Q – bump54, withoutmerit, and jkay. We’re joined at the hip, the four of us. Always.