Starting on Monday. What an ideal concept, right? Like Monday is the automatic reset button for everything and anything you’ve ever started or attempted to stop in your life.
Diets. Quitting smoking. Exercising. Mending fences with someone.
We’ve all said it but I wonder how many people have actually stuck to it.
I can say that, for myself, I have failed miserably at most things I have said this about except quitting smoking.
I loved everything about smoking. I loved the act of buying the packs of cigarettes, slamming them unopened on my palm to “pack” them (apparently this helps them burn longer), unwrapping the cellophane, and lighting it up.
There was nothing like the first inhale. That first drag (or pull as some call it) was releasing. I always felt a sense of calm and peace flow through me after the first drag to every cigarette I smoked. It was like sucking in the stressors and demons of your life then setting them free along with the smoke.
It was something I did socially, privately, at work to get some down time, and because I had grown up with it. All my life I was surrounded by these women that made smoking look like an awesomely cool thing. I know it’s not and have known that a long time. It just didn’t stop me.
Until December 9th, 2013.
A Monday.
My friend’s daughter was 3 years old. Starting on that Monday, their family received news that changed their lives forever. Their 3 year old, who they thought had the flu, was diagnosed with Leukemia.
3 yrs old. Let that sink in a bit.
Everything after her diagnosis seemed to happen so fast. She was admitted, a gofundme was set up in her name, and the community rallied to set up fundraisers.
This little girl was poked and prodded, had infected port sites, couldn’t understand why she was losing her hair, and yet, she never, not once throughout her ordeal, lost her smile. It was a smile that just said, “I am a warrior and I will fight.”
And fight she did.
Bella’s battle with cancer at 3 made me realize something important about the cigarettes I loved so much as an adult. I was inviting cancer into my body. This little girl never did.
So starting on Monday, February 24th, 2014 I quit smoking.
It was hard but I did it. I did it for myself but most importantly I did it for Bella.
Bella has been in remission since May of 2014 and continues to have great test results every 6 months.
What will be YOUR motivation?
Kari Nappi is a blogger at Book Boyfriends Rock.
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