"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success."
--Henry Ford
"When he took time to help the man up the mountain, lo, he scaled it himself."
--Tibetan Proverb
Just a couple of quotes there to re-affirm the reason why I found success when I walked through the gates of Castle Grayskull and joined the other May '16 Masters of the Universe. I had tried quitting as an individual on several occasions, but found failure with each attempt. On my own I couldn't find the willpower to quit for myself or even my family, but through this site I was able quite for the sake of my group and all of my fellow Masters who were each fighting down their own path towards being nicotine-free.
On the day I first joined my group all I saw were a bunch of random screen names of which I couldn't distinguish one from the other. Over time those screen names took on personalities - I began to identify the early risers, the night-shift workers, the ones who hated Mondays, the ones who posted the most messages, etc. As more days rolled by a few of the screen names took on real names as I got to know a handful of others outside of the web site via texts, emails, etc. Along the way, as we all shared the struggles which we faced, I started to see that every other person in the group was going through the exact same thing that I was every single day. I've still yet to meet in-person any single person within my group, but I felt accountable to every single one of them (and still do!)
Also along the way we also lost a few, but how many more did we keep from falling back into the hands of nicotine? There were a couple of days early on where I was fading, putting off posting until late in the day, only to be called out by guys like PatrickG and BigWhit, who nudged me back in line. That is why joining a group such as this and giving up yourself to be held accountable to others was successful to me and all of the others in our group who made it. Yes, we can congratulate ourselves individually for making it to our goal, but we we made it there as a group with members who went out of their way at times to make sure no one went astray.
A big THANK YOU to those who keep from stopping the hamster wheels which power this web site. I still have many friends who dip and who stubbornly think that one day they'll just toss out their last can and be done chewing. I hope to some day lead them to this site so that they can free themselves from the bonds of nicotine like I did.
Surgio65, 154 days, 6/27/2016
