Quit Smoking

Author: Kyle Loesch

Nicotine addiction is like death; it stalks you around every corner. You never know when a nicotine fit will jump out and surprise you, like the cheap scares in a horror film.

I started smoking when I was in the seventh grade, so that puts me at twelve. I’m seventeen now, and I am proud to say that I kicked the habit. Compared to some people, five years of cigarette smoking is amateur talk, but I am just happy I did quit before I was one of the “Pro’s”.

Now I know what comes next, “How did you do it?” Well, all I can say to that is “It’s mind over matter. Just like when you get poison ivy and the itch is so excruciating, one thinks it’s impossible not to scratch. But, somehow you resist. The only difference is that nicotine addiction is like poison ivy in the physical disturbance way. It haunts you day and night, whispering in your ear “Just one drag. Come on, you know you want it.” Poison ivy doesn’t exactly tempt people as fiercely as cigarettes.

I’m not going to lie now, temptation has almost overcome my wanting to quit a few times in the past few months. Almost does count in more than horseshoes and hand grenades. When it was all beginning, I had an ulterior motive for quitting - which was my Dad. You see, my Dad is Forty-Two, and the twenty six years of two packs a day he has under his belt, wasn’t getting any smaller. I decided to try and get him to quit by quitting myself. This attempt seemed to be working well the first month. Once again, my Dad was returning from work with the reek of cigarette smoke hovering in a cloud over his head.

Why didn’t I pick up another butt myself? I can’t tell you. Maybe it has something to do with my Mom, but I’m not sure. I was very tempted to reach for my Dad’s pack, pull one out and light it up. Then take another sweet puff of cancer stick I’ve been longing for quite sometime. I mean, once I knew my Dad was smoking again, my ambition kind of drifted off as sporadically as it sprung up. The fact that no one believed I would be able to quit pushed me to the point where I am now. Just the idea of giving all the negative thinkers the big middle finger made me want to - no scratch that- NEED to stay quit.

The path to being cigarette free has been a hard and maturing experience. It almost seemed like every minute or so , there was a “mister addict” pointing me in another direction away from my “true wanted route”. Nowadays, I’m the one in the group telling everybody to quit like me. After all, all of my friends, but one, still smoke. The journey is still not over. For I am sure that addiction will say “Hi” not long from now. But, thanks to mind power, I can give the addiction the “Big Middle Finger” along with the negative thinkers.

Blog Owners Note:

My son Kyle had to write a story about something that was hard for him to do for an English Comp class, and chose to write it about his fight to Quit Smoking. I read over his essay and thought this would maybe be a good incentive for other young kids out there to try and kick the habit. I have been a smoker for 26 years and just recently decided to quit myself, after many times of trying my son and I decided to try and quit smoking together. Unfortunately he has had a lot more success than I have had, I am down to 3-5 cigarettes a day which is a great deal better than the 2 packs a day I was smoking before. I am going on the patch to see if I can nip this in the bud once and for all.