FREEDOM

Here I am at 101 days since my life has changed, I’m sure as hell not better looking or more muscular, but my smile is a whole hell of a lot whiter.

Being from West Virginia, I have been blessed with both worlds of the city and country lifestyle. My family members are the ideal crazy, redneck, and genuine human beings that we are losing day after day in this world. I take huge pride in where I’m from and how I have been raised. I’ve done/do everything from every sport known to man to doing every outdoor activity possible from camping, to man trips with limited supplies, to simple fishing or sitting in a tree stand. You get my drift, I love the outdoors and sports, and that’s how I was introduced to the one thing that always held me back.

I was in middle school, about age 13 or 14, when I started to get introduced into the world of hypothetical manhood. I needed to drink beer (Which I will always love), get girls, and chew or rub snuff to be cool at the time, typical upbringing as a jock. I would do redman/ beechnut, or levi garrett
as a middle schooler and by the time I was 15 I dipped every chance I had, that’s where my addiction started, although I didn’t see it as that at the time.

Like I said I am a huge family kinda guy, and my idol is my grandfather. I am exactly like him, and wanted to do everything he did. I would buy him and I a can of longhorn (his favorite) every time we would bowhunt or whatever we did. Even after I killed my second deer with a bow in 2007 as a young teen, he offered me a pinch before we gutted the thing. It was a sense of belongingness and tradition all of my family and I have had mutual.. until recently.

Over the years, the majority of my friends have dipped. It was a manly thing to do, and being a pretty decent baseball player like my older brother, there was almost no chance in me saying no since he loved. Baseball and snuff go hand in hand Lol. It took a lot for me to come to the conclusion that this habit was disgusting and abnormal for your body and mind, but when I realized it was the best moment of my life.

I am 20 years old and enrolled into Respiratory Care school. As wild and crazy as I like to get on the weekends, I have a bright future ahead of me with this brain of mine that has a great way of looking at life. In early May it dawned on me that I needed a change. So I gradually started taking less rubs while trout fishing throughout the month and saw myself falling in the right direction. On May 25th, I set a quit date, got pissed off and grabbed a can and it made me more pissed off that I did that. So I spit it out, dumped the can out and came across this site during my first fog stage.

That’s when I created an account and Sage was sweet enough to give me her phone number to explain how this all works, and I haven’t stopped being quit since.

Its amazing how much a simple drug can dictate your every move. I would skip college classes to get a last dip in, or stay up so late dipping that the nic would stimulate my body even further to restlessness. As you all know or will know, we are stronger than that damn nic. It’s a simple chemical that serves no purpose but killing off our brain and dictating our lives.
Ill always hold the dipping memories close to me because they were definitely some awesome times in my life. That moment finding a deer with my Pap was an exciting time and my baseball pals were the best friends Ill ever have.

HOWEVER, MORE IMPORTANTLY, I know if you are not changing for the better, you’re living as a slave to the fixed mindset you possess.

“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.”

Now when I go fishing, camping, hunting, golfing, or whatever, I promise that I am thinking of every last one of you when that huge wad of sunflower seeds go in my mouth. Every one of you have contributed to making my life better, and I can never thank you enough.

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