Fowldawgs HOF Speech

First off, my story is not a conventional KTC one. But that is the type of person that I am, unconventional. I make things harder on myself, I take the road less traveled, and I’m just to damn stubborn to be honest. For starters Ill tell you all a little about myself. My name is Andrew, I’m originally from Augusta, Georgia but have been relocated since up in the Cincinnati. I’m a full on Georgia boy to core (GO DAMN DAWGS) and like many of you I started dippin out in the woods. All of my life my idols all dipped, everyone where I grew up dipped so when I first took my first pinch, it just felt natural. As I became more and more addicted to the stuff it changed from habit that I did when I was around my friends to a habit that I did with everything. Driving, huntin, fishin, golfin, EVERYTHING. But I always felt ashamed for some reason. I kept it from my parents, kept it from my girlfriends and eventually my wife. I dipped for over 5 years until something hard but very important to my present day quit happened. That day my parents and wife found out, it was the worst/best in my life. It finally gave me the courage to put the stuff down that I had grown up with and enjoyed for so many years.

Like many of you, my first introduction to KTC was with a simple search of Google of ways to quit chewin. I read some of the articles and testimonials on here that really kicked me in the ass. Everyone kept everyone accountable and kicked them in the ass when things got a little sideways, that’s exactly what I needed. I signed up immediately and introduced myself to the February group that would be lifeline throughout my quit. My hardest days were the beginning. Breaking that cycle that I had been in for years was tough, I mean I wanted to quit but I enjoyed dipping, I like the smell, I like the taste, its gives me something to do on my hour long ride to work. But it is killing me, it caused division in my marriage, it was literally destroying every part of my life. I had to do it; it was a life or death situation. Whenever I got heated I immediately got on the forum and bitched anything and everyone that would listen. They would take some of the weight of their shoulders, it wasn’t all on me I had a group of people that had my back. I had good days and I had bad days.

Around days 50 or so I began to miss days in roll, a few here in there. By the time I got to 75, I thought I could do it by myself. I thought I broke the threshold and thought I could take it from there without KTC. Oh how wrong I was. As days went by, I felt the urges to dip again come back like it was day 1. Temptations came and I had no one to talk to. Long story short, after about a week I had enough. Nicotine has tried to reel me back in, tempting me with dipping and smoking. I came crawling back to my group ashamed and embarrassed. I came back because I couldn’t do my quit by myself. I needed someone to yell at, to kick me in the ass if I got out of line.

My group has done just that. February has been my lifeline. They accepted me back when I left. I had to earn their respect back (I continue to do so); I needed to show that I could be trusted. As important as they are to me in my quit, they need to be able to trust me, I need to show them they can count on me to have their back in their quit. And they can. I just want to say thank you to not just only February but all the KTC community. You have saved my life from nicotine. THANK YOU!

FOWLDAWG
Andrew

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