Last updated on July 17, 2026
Unbelievable… I am an ex-smoker! Tomorrow will mark three months. I didn’t plan it, and I certainly wasn’t prepared for it. It just happened. Out of the blue, after 35 years of smoking, I decided to quit—and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I am 50 years young, and for the first time in my adult life, I am a non-smoker! So tomorrow, I am going to celebrate a little. Maybe with cake, maybe with a glass of wine, or maybe I will buy myself some flowers.
Lately, I have heard the question, “Is it easy, or is it hard?” so many times that I thought I would share my journey with anyone who might be interested. I quit cold turkey—no patch, no gum, no e-cigarettes, and no pills. I just put one out and walked away! I am not an expert, and everything I write here is my point of view and my experience.
This is my journey, not a guide or a recommendation. It never made sense to me to quit smoking by using a smaller amount of nicotine. To me, that feels a little like telling an alcoholic, “Only drink a little bit.” Addiction comes in many forms, and we are all different. It is a complex subject, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Still, the goal is the same: if you quit, you don’t want to smoke anymore.
Do what works for you. Maybe I can pay it forward, and maybe my silly little notes will inspire even one smoker to quit too. Giving up smoking didn’t kill me! I wasn’t so sure about that at first, but I survived—and so did everybody near me. 🙂 I don’t know why, but I started writing a journal right from the start, almost like my own therapy session at home in front of the computer. I didn’t even know I liked writing, so I’ll learn how to blog now.
I had never been an adult without a cigarette. They were either in my hand or close by.
I started smoking when I was 15 years old, way back in the ’70s. Smoking was “in” then; everybody did it, and you could smoke everywhere, even in some movie theaters. I remember those days as if they happened yesterday. There was one special little movie theater where we went to watch “Grease” for the umpteenth time. Like our heroes on the screen, we smoked too. It worked like a magic wand; the cigarette in our hands transformed us. All of a sudden, we were grown-ups—or so we thought. We felt sophisticated and chic… we were cool! Fast-forward 35 years: I decided to quit, and this is how I felt after just a few days….
to be continued…..
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