Lots of names going through my excited head, too many to mention, you folks know who you are. : ))Thank you would never be enough but it is all I have. ; )

I am no expert on quitting, can't write pretty words, but I can extend a warm hug, lend an ear, and show you my progress.

Newbies, hold tight, stay close to this support system. The folks here understand and truly care. They taught me how to quit for good. Don't ever lose hope, it took most of us many attempts to find our success. Success? It isn't in numbers, it is in learning. I ruined many quits, some very lengthy. My addiction kicked in, junky thinking brought me to "JUST ONE PUFF". We addicts don't want "just one" (right Michael?) we want them all. Smoking just isnt an option, not even one!! We must be kind to ourselves, the child in us doesnt like to hear NEVER AGAIN...so the fear is now over..we do it.. ONE DAY AT A TIME!!! I would rather fight this addiction rather than a painful illness. SMOKING IS TOO SCARY!! Your quit is a tribute to your life, a gift, hold it close.

Is it really a year?...Lets see...... LOL

One year, 10 hours, 34 minutes and 48 seconds. 7308 cigarettes not smoked, saving $1,096.32. Life saved: 3 weeks, 4 days, 9 hours, 0 minutes.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I like this OLD FOGEY stuff...way kewl LOL Hey Tommyboy...get me in there buddy. LOL

~~~smoking is not an option - one day a time - never take that next puff~~~

Thanks Blairsville and Freedom, God's light shines through your hearts.

Thank you GOD, for the courage and strength!!

With love, admiration and gratitude,

Joanne : )

ONE YEAR SMOKE-FREE...NOT EVEN A PUFF : )

ps...Norm, dear precious brother....if you stopped smoking..so can I, right? : ))) Keep sending us angels....miss ya lots. ; ))

I owe a lot to Blairsville, and to the people who make this place what it is. Thank you all!

And I want to say a SPECIAL thanks to Blair, for providing this place where people meet and where saving lives is a daily occurrence.

It's a book that's designed on helping you to quit, you answer a bunch of questions on why you want to quit, how to plan ahead for a quit date, how you are going to quit and how you are going to overcome the cravings. It had a lot of tips on quitting and on beating the cravings.

At this point I'd never even heard of Blairsville and I really didn't understand much about quitting or how to succeed. At that time I had been trying to quit on my own, sometimes trying twice a day or every other day, I couldn't even manage 1 day.

A friend quit a month ahead of me using zyban, I thought " if he can I can". I thought I'd give it my best shot as I was really sick of smoking but just couldn't understand WHY can't I just quit???

I did read the entire booklet and filled out all of it..... or so I thought. Today I noticed I never filled out the part that dealt with a slip or with rewarding myself. I just realized today when i re-read it.... I never thought I could quit and it was inevitable that I would slip and when I did I would just go back to smoking.

So to make a long story shorter.... I did quit... locked myself in my house...on the third day found Blairsville. I was within minutes of giving up... I was shown "Junky Thinking" ...WOW.... Suddenly it was clear, I realized why I couldn't just quit! "I'm an Addict" hit me like a load of bricks, I saw no difference between myself and a herion addict who would (and has) done anything to feed the addiction. It fueled a fire within to never give in to the addiction again, no matter what! I finally under-stood smoking.... and I hated it!

In this one small town, was a family. A typical family of this mining town. It was a town that mined bauxite from the ground, and turned it into a white powder, called alumni, to be turned into aluminum. And this powder was destructive to the town and to its people. The towns folks didn't know this. They were a loving community.... they looked out for their own. They raised each other's kids. They shared the joys and the anguish of each member of that community. They smoked, even though, the white powder would eat the paint from the new cars, they smoked.

In one family, the youngest daughter watched her older brother smoke, and marveled at watching her dad proudly blow smoke rings, delighting in his success at doing this. She sat at his knees at night, watching, and wanting to be like him.

Still, he taught her to not smoke.

As a part of her high school group, she didn't smoke. And, by this time, the dad had arrived home from work, the same time he came home each day, barely able to walk into the house, announcing, "I can't breath, I can't have another cigarette." And he didn't, so she didn't.

She removed cigarettes from the mouths of her friends. She allowed no smoking around her. Her high school group, didn't smoke. Strange, in this small town, this environmentally threatened community, where smoking was the norm, a white powder that engulfed the community, had a group, that didn't smoke..

Off to college she went! She loved the long nights of being in the TV room, studying there, so as not to keep the roommate awake. Studying and craving a cigarette! She had never smoked one, but she knew, that she craved a cigarette. She knew, more than anything, that the feeling she couldn't control, was that desire for a cigarette. When alone, she knew that desire. She still didn't smoke one.

Ah, life after college. The small town girl finds the life of the city, the excitement, the feeling of conquering the world! And, with each gathering, wanting that cigarette as she watched others smoke. She knew, if she ever smoked one, she would be hooked. The knowledge of "second hand smoking" had begun.

The carefreeness of one night... and she smoked that one... then two.. and the next day, bought a pack. She was 23. The smart, talented girl just made a major mistake... one that would come to haunt her, for the rest of her life.

Her dad died...a slow, painful death. telling her, please don't smoke...stop it... but all she heard, was after over 20 years, he still craved a cigarette.

Oh....she had a good life.. She even married a man that smoked. And suffered the trauma of having him die from a suddenly heart attack, caused by smoking, with an autopsy showing, the beginnings of lung cancer. She didn't know. She was a widow, at 45.

She had stopped smoking on several occasions, not really quitting... more like "taking a break from smoking." She wasn't smoking when her husband died. And didn't... for a few months after. She once again brought that pack and continue her smoking, for 8 more years.

The smoking effected her life. It effected her self-esteem, cause she was having to "hide" her smoking. It became an embarrassment, the depths of the tricks she would go to smoke. Oh, she quit. She quit twelve years ago. She quit ten years ago. She quit seven years ago. She quit five years ago. She became an ex-smoker one year ago.

Life began to change again with some major changes ahead. She wanted to approach them, not smoking. The plan formed. A major attack on this smoking issue. The year ahead was going to be a tortuous one... lots of unknowns were ahead, lots of struggles would need to be faced. And she needed, one thing, one success, that she could hold on to, keeping her self-esteem to get her through all that she was facing..

It was to quit smoking. To do the one thing that she could do for herself. The one thing that no one else could do for her. The one thing, that she didn't have to depend on others around to hold up their part of the job. The one thing that would be her greatest accomplishment. Of all that she had done, this accomplishment would be, quit smoking. She knew what the success would give her inside, knowing that her world might crumble around her. And if it did, she needed that success, for herself.

The plan began. It would be Zyban, it would be patches, and it would be a support group. She knew there was one on the Internet, cause 5 years ago, during a quit, she had discovered such a group. Didn't participate, but read lots.

She set the date, February 25, 1999, a traveling day, to participate in a 3 day conference, with smoking in meetings, in restaurants, and in bars and clubs. And, as a presenter, she had to request a hand-held mike, cause she could no longer "become" a part of her audience without one, cause her voice was ruined from the smoking. She had taken her Zyban, she had her patches, and she had found her support group. She began "the quit."

Being a person of ceremony, to measure major milestone, on the night of the 24th, she packed her suitcase once again (she was a traveling woman) and settled back, having carefully rationed those last cigarettes, and smoked, remembering each moment of that smoking.

And the quit had begun. The next morning, the patch went on, the suitcase was closed, the journey of a lifetime started.

The interesting thing about this quit, she found, was the return to a community, like the one she grew up in! A community that offered a helping hand, a hug, a sharing of anguish, of joy and of fun. With this quit, she was returning to her roots! Her small "real life" community still exists today - a shell of itself, but its residents know the growing up they were given, is still an important part of their lives.

And with this new community, she found that community she grew up in...a community of unconditional love, of unconditional support. And she thrived.

It was in Blairsville, she learned... Keeping the Quit. Of course. She knew how to quit.... but, had never considered the process, of learning how to keep the quit.

She embraced those words, keeping my quit, brought them inside herself, and began to live those words. She found some help with that living.... the first time she read Junkie Thinking, there was a physical reaction! A happening! It described her! There, in print, were the reasons that she thought she couldn't keep her quit.

She had control, or so she thought. Memorable day, that one day. Nothing compared. She realized, she had to hide herself from others, to protect them! To hide, she escape to her favorite refuge, a place known as Blairsville, and wandered the streets, hiding but searching. And there it was... in neon.... that sign that cast a beam throughout the community...

SMOKING IS NOT AN OPTION.

She knew in her heart, she had her quit. "Real Life" others saw and felt it. The difference was there, she had her quit! And she had this community.. that stayed close, that loved, that laughed, that cherished... that taught her how to Keep the Quit.

Today, her greatest achievement comes, in celebrating this day... this day of 365 days of not smoking! Each day brings new delights, that smoking history, has faded. She wakes each day, knowing, her life is hers...accepting that something tugged at her heart, that aspiration, that dream is now true. Only a memory.

My friends - this story doesn't end with the knight in shining armor riding up on the white horse to rescue and forever love the beautiful damsel in distress. Instead, it ends with the beautiful damsel in distress, liking and loving herself. These are two gifts she has from all that she has learned in becoming an ex-smoker. And with these two gifts, liking and loving herself, she can and will, easily recognize that knight in shining armor riding up on the white horse, that comes to be rescued by her!

Someone, somewhere here, shared this - I share it with you...

Persist....

With the right tools, you can do great things. Let your instincts, your intellect and your heart guide you.

Trust...

Believe in the incredible power of the human mind.

Of doing something that makes a difference.

Of laughing and hoping.

Of lazy afternoons.

Of lasting friends.

Of all the things that will cross your path this year.

The start of something new brings the hope of something great.

Anything is possible.

There is only you.

And you will pass this way only once. Do it right!

Big ole Texas hugs to each of you (cause everything is bigger in Texas) for giving me this day. Stand tall, and take your bows for all you have done for me to say ---

Got my Quit,

Sherry