SMOKING! Ick.

Today is my brother's quit day. He is on his way to becoming a non-smoker. To that I would like to say: kick ass! Somehow, despite losing our mother to cancer so very early in her life (and ours), all of us children ended up being smokers. I remember lecturing her about the evils of smoking when I was a child. If my memory serves, my older brother did the same thing. Will, did you have a paper you wrote about the dangers of smoking? I remember something like that.
After she died it was only a few years later that I was a smoker myself, the dangers forgotten or rationalized away. The younger boys seemed to have had no choice- it was always around them. I always figured I would quit, right until I got to the point where I thought I never could.
Finally, at age 29 I got wise. Or at least wise enough. The decision was made to be able to call myself a non-smoker by my 30th birthday. Tomorrow is my two year anniversary of that decision. It ended up being one of the easiest things I have ever done in my life, and I am lucky enough to say that I have never regretted it for one moment. There may be times when I want a cigarette, but they only reinforce my love of NOT smoking them.
Patrick: I am so proud of you. You have "gotten wise" a lot younger than I ever could.
Will: You're next.