Worst and Best Decision of My Life – Changes I’ve Made

1989 was the year in which I made the worse decision in my life. It was a typical warm spring day, and I was heading out to the ball field with the rest of the team at Dixie Heights High School, when my best friend at the time comes up from behind me and says, “Dude! Check it!” He pulled out a can of Kodiak wintergreen. I had never really known anything about dip at the time. I asked him why he had it and what did it do for him. He basically told me that it was just something fun to do, and kept him occupied during practices. He asked if I wanted to try it, and I said, “Sure, why not.” I left practice early, as I got sick and vomited.

The next day at practice my friend and I joked about it, and he warned not to swallow the juice, and that it wasn’t uncommon to get sick the first time. He offered it to me again, and this time I didn’t get sick. I liked it. I liked it a lot. I was 16 years old at the time, and that was my first experience with dipping, and was the beginning of the worse decision I’ve ever made in my life.

Fast forward 25 years to the year 2014. I was sitting around the living room one evening with my wife, and two of my four boys, and we were watching the Reds playing on TV. My son who is 13 says to me, “Dad, did you hear about what happened to Tony Gwynn?” “Yeah” I said. “Such a sad tragedy, he was one of the great hitters of the game.” We talked about Tony for a few minutes, and I told my son how I grew up watching Tony playing. Then my son hit me with a hard slap to the face. “Did you hear how Tony died dad?” He asked. “He died from mouth cancer from using smokeless tobacco. You should stop using that stuff dad. I don’t want you to get mouth cancer.” I sat there for a few minutes, and then sort of excused myself, and went upstairs to my bedroom and cried. I said a prayer, and made a decision right then and there that I was going to stop using the poison.

The next day I told my wife and kids that I was going to quit, and I thanked them for opening my eyes. I went to the internet, and searched on how to quit using smokeless tobacco. One of the first search results was KTC. I read the front page over, and read some of the testimonials, and decided this would be very helpful for me. I joined on June 18, 2014 and that is the first day of my quit, and the best decision I’ve ever made.

I am so grateful to have found KTC, and I believe that God lead me to this awesome community. I am overwhelmed with joy for everyone here who is changing their lives, and deciding to win again the nic whore! I LOVE KTC!!!! I can’t put into words how much I love KTC and how thankful I am for this site and this community.

I want to shout out to my SULTANS!!!!! That group has been so awesome. CBIRD65 is just…well, he’s just one of the greatest people that I hope to have the fortune of meeting someday. He is an ass kicker, and he led us through some amazing crap. I couldn’t have asked for a better leader. CBIRD you’re a savior my friend and I want to thank you with all of my heart for putting up with us. To the rest of the SULTANS, I just want to say how proud I am to be with you all. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves, and we have done so well. I love you guys, and you all better not leave. I expect to see you all in the forums.

So, I’ll close by saying I’ve decided to make my life better, and I hope that someone reads this, and finds something to encourage them to make a change in their life as well. One hundred days isn’t the end, it’s just the beginning of a lifelong relationship with KTC. I’m not going anywhere. I plan on posting roll every day, and helping out new quitters.

To the KTC community I quit with you today, and every day. I wish you all peace, love, and lifelong change that doesn’t include the nic whore!

NOTE: This piece written by KillTheCan.org forum member landdon