29 days and passed another test. It has been warmer than average here for the past couple of days, and my neighbor was sweeping out their garage as I was running to do a few errands. She had the 80's music playing and was smoking. I am a bit nostalgic by nature, in fact that has derailed a quit or two in the past, so naturally with the music of my youth as the soundtrack my mind drifted back to smoking with gang in high school. I jumped in the car and made it on my way. While I was driving around it dawned on me that it is in our first few years of smoking that we condition ourselves to choose to smoke even though their are good reasons not to. Think about it most teens don't want their parents to discover they smoke, but it did not stop us. When I started to become a regular smoker I said I will never smoke at school, that would mean detention if I got caught. A few weeks later a handful of afternoons in detention a year was a small price to pay for smoking two or three a day. I had a girlfriend who played basketball and would have been kicked off the team if she were caught smoking, but it did not stop her. By the time the consequences get more serious, health, pregnancy, setting a good example for our kids we have been choosing smoking over so many different things in our lives for so long it just comes easily. Back to yesterday I had a clear choice a few moments of feeling like I was 17 again or a lifetime of freedom........ It really is that simple.. The good news is no matter how many thousands of times you have chosen a cigarette over the alternative, we still have the chance to make a choice next time.
