about kevin

i was 10 years old when i started hooking camels from my dad (and viceroys from my mom) and sneaking off into the back alleys to smoke them.

i continued to smoke, off and on (but mostly on), for the next 35 years. not because i wanted to, not because i enjoyed it, and not because i couldn't quit (although i'd convinced myself, by quitting and relapsing countless times, that i couldn't).

i continued to smoke for 35 years because i'm an addict.

i was diagnosed with an advanced case of emphysema on november 12th, 2001. my doctor said that if i didn't quit right then, i would die a particularly horrifying death: death by suffocation. i took that as my wake-up call, and quit smoking a week later (on november 19th, 2001) with the help of the american lung association's freedom from smoking online program.

i haven't had a puff since.

the early days were tough, then it was a rollercoaster for a while, but it smoothed out a lot by the end of the first year, and i started to feel pretty confident that this was the quit that would stick. at the time i'm writing this (late 2008), i've been free for over 7 years and i'm still pretty confident that this is the quit that's gonna stick.

you'll notice that the bulk of the tales were written (and originally posted) during my first year of freedom. this doesn't mean that i stopped writing about the quit after the first year; i just did it in different venues, most notably at quit smoking support @ woofmang.com (a free online support community that i launched in march of 2003), where i've written over 8,000 posts (and counting)...