MEDIA CONTEST: Kicking the habit Published Dec. 28, 2006 Print Journalist of the Year Entry 3B ACC MEDIA CONTEST -- It has been 2,504 days since I smoked my last cigarette. The reason I count the days is because quitting smoking was one of the hardest things I have ever done and was only achieved because I took it one day at a time. Like most smokers, I started very young. I was only 11 years old and in the sixth grade. One of my friends came over and we were playing in the woods behind my house. He pulled out a cigarette he had stole from his father, lit it up and asked if I wanted some. In a matter of two seconds, I recalled the small amount of the anti-smoking information I had been taught in school. The basic knowledge I had at the time was smoking was bad for you, but so was candy and soda. And being so young I didn't understand the true dangers of cigarettes, nor did I understand how harmful and addictive they are. So I reached out, grabbed the cigarette and inhaled some of the smoke. This being the first time, I gagged and coughed and thought I was going to be sick. That should have been enough of an indication about how bad smoking is. My friend laughed and told me I would get used to it. I remember thinking if I started, I could quit whenever I wanted and cigarettes weren't going to control me ... I should have been thinking smoking is disgusting and dumb. By the time I quit smoking I was a few months shy of turning 18. I wasn't even legally old enough to buy cigarettes and I had already smoked for almost a third of my life. The day I smoked my last cigarette stands out very clearly in my mind. It was New Years Eve, Dec. 31, 1999. I had been planning this day for a while. I had only one goal for my New Year's resolution: to quit smoking. I was at a local club with my girlfriend at the time and her family. They were inside preparing to watch the ball drop. It was around 11:50 p.m. and instead of being inside I was outside in the parking lot. My girlfriends parents didn't know I smoked and I didn't want them to catch me. I had been in enough trouble in the past over smoking. I told them I was going to the rest room, and to avoid suspicion, I left my coat at the table and then snuck out a side door. Like most addictions, nicotine can make people do crazy things. I remember standing outside very well because it was freezing cold, somewhere in the teens. A light snow was falling and the ground and trees had a fresh dusting. And there I was, the day had come, I was smoking my last cigarette ... ever. As I stood outside shivering from the cold, I inhaled puff after puff. The sweet minty flavor of my cigarette was refreshing. As I inhaled the carcinogenic cloud into my lungs it felt good. How sick is that? Slowly killing myself was refreshing and felt good? I thought about all of the times in the past I had tried to quit. Most of them were forced upon me by my parents. But you can't make someone quit something that is so addictive if they don't want to quit. My parent's efforts only lessened my use of cigarettes but it did not make me quit. Like I said, addictions affect the way people think and act. And the addict in me always found a way to sneak a smoke whenever and wherever I could. During my last month of 10th grade, I was caught smoking in school for the second time. Needless to say, that summer was not very fun for me. Normally being caught twice while smoking in school would be an automatic expulsion, however, the school district had just started a new anti-smoking program. For two weeks, everyday after I had to attend a tobacco education class This class did not make me want to quit smoking immediately, but it did open my eyes to the many health hazards of tobacco. One thing that really changed my opinion on smoking was seeing a preserved lung that had cancer. This was passed around the class in a sealed container along with a healthy lung so you could see the difference. I started to wonder if my lungs were turning black. Two of the most valuable pieces of information I took away from that class were the number one reason why most people fail to quit and a little trick to make quitting easier. Quitting anything addictive is a lot like a diet. Most people cannot quit smoking cold turkey, just like starving yourself is not the best way to lose weight. I had failed several times in the past because I quit smoking all at once, only to get the shakes within a week or two and start smoking again. Our instructor said one of the most effective ways to quit is to slowly lower your consumption over time, the same way you would lower your calorie intake if you were trying to lose weight. It's a lot harder to stop smoking if you are consuming a pack a day than if you only smoke a few cigarettes a day. I decided to quit smoking for New Years and spent the next seven months lowering my smoking habit from more than half a pack a day to only one cigarette a day. I also read everything I could about how harmful smoking is. This helped me stay on course and kept me confident that I would quit. The trick that I learned from my anti-smoking class was simple ... always carry a straw in your pocket. But not just any straw, it has to be one of the small diameter stir straws you find at coffee shops to stir your drinks. Whenever you feel a nicotine craving starting all you have to do is take out your stir straw, put it in your mouth, squeeze your nose and breath in and out of this straw for two minutes. This does two things, it gets your mind on something other than wanting a cigarette, and it simulates the feeling of having emphysema. It is very hard to get adequate oxygen through that tiny stir straw, just like it would be hard to breathe with emphysema. The only difference is you can remove the straw and breathe normally. You can't remove the damage caused by 30 years of smoking. The feeling of not being able to breathe is horrible and I didn't want to ever get to that point. For the rest of high school, staying smoke free was my only priority. Quitting smoking is not an easy task. It takes patience and dedication and it will only happen when you want it to happen. Not because you feel like you should or because family and friends are pressuring you to quit - you must want to quit. I can tell you all of the friendships that I lost, all of the sleepless nights I laid in bed dying for a cigarette, and all of the hardships associated with giving up such a horribly addictive habit were well worth the benefits I have reaped by quitting. Being addicted to something is not a good feeling. Not being able to go a day without something controlling my every moment made me feel weak and that is not a feeling I miss. I definitely don't miss wasting a lot of money on a product that only does harm to my body. The only advice I can offer to anyone that smokes is do some research and find out what the ultimate price will be for your addiction. Will you be there for your son's or daughter's wedding? Will you ever see your grandchildren? Will you have to carry an iron lung everywhere you go? These are the questions you have to ask yourself. If you are willing to live with the endless list of problems tobacco use can cause, there is nothing anyone can do to convince you otherwise. But if and when you finally decide to quit, be strong, be confident and get help if you have to. Most importantly, take it one day at a time. My last drag of a cigarette was almost seven years ago, since then I have gone from the smell of smoke making my mouth water, to totally avoiding that disgusting smell as often as I can. After I took my last puff, I flicked my cigarette butt into a snow drift. There were only a few minutes until midnight and I didn't want to miss the count down. I turned and walked away as the cigarette's red glow faded in the snow, and I have never looked back.