Three hundred and sixty-six days ago I sat at my kitchen table and smoked a cigarette. I hoped that it would be my last one.

I'm a helper, and not very good at asking for help. I had no idea what I was in for. But with a patch firmly planted, ahem...well...never mind where, I thought I could handle it. HA!
A couple of days into it, I searched the Internet for information about quitting. I found the quitsmokingsupport page. "That's sweet," I thought, "they have a little bulletin board too." I had been "online for about 5 years, and in all that time I never "chatted" with anyone online.
Slowly I read some posts, and I came back to read some more the next day. You know what I saw? It is in here every day. People...complete strangers...reaching across the miles to hold each other, pull them close, and help them make their quits their own. By about day 4 I was so moved, I had to tell my story. I wrote a shaky two paragraph post about how I started smoking when I was 14, my previous quit attempts, and that I just started a new quit. (I was so afraid to actually talk to people online that I made up a fake name. My real name is Francine, but to my new family now it's Maggie).

Bob was the first to reply. He awarded me the "squish ‘em award"! And everyone else followed. From that day I was part of a family, the Blairsville Family.
Even in the early days, I spent more time helping others than asking for help. But even though I wasn't asking, I was reading every word of support that was offered, I needed it too, I just didn't know it at the time.
I think I found myself somewhere near the fourth month when depression was getting to me, the novelty of quitting was wearing down, and I knew there was something in my way. I was stuck. I learned humility. I learned to reach down and ask for help. And in true Blairsville style, help was there for me when I asked.
I learned so much about myself, my addiction to nicotine, and how to manage it. I am an addict. Yeah, yeah...I was saying that on day one...but somewhere around the 5th month I found out what that means. And it was right here in Blairsville that I learned how to keep quit.

Stopping smoking was probably one of the most difficult things I have ever done. But it has been so much more than just stopping smoking. I learned about how I managed my feelings, roll them up in a tobacco stick and smoke them away, for the moment anyway. Wow, take that away, then what do you do with all those feelings? Feel them? What a concept!
But stopping smoking is by far the best thing I have even done! I have done some other wonderful things too, but this is definitely the best! As difficult as it has been, it is more than worth it. Every day I am grateful that I am not smoking. Just think about that for a minute, if one year ago I did not make the decision to quit, would I be telling someone right now that every day I am thankful that I AM smoking? ABSOLUTELY NOT! If I was honest with myself, I would say that every day I wish I wasn't smoking.