Alright, Crawford....... where are you? You gotta make more than one post to make this work. The guys posting here have summed it up. Luck is nothing more than a backdoor that's left open. The way I see it, there are only two options for each and every day.
Those options are: 1.Quit. 2.Not quit.
Every day we have the choice to pick one of those options.
'fireman' This guy is definitely a lifestyle.
'drool' Dipping is an addiciton, not a lifestyle.
I'll admit that nicotine is rampant in the fire service. That is undeniable. It wasn't easy to quit in that environment until I got my head right. Probably 2/3 of the guys at my station either dipped or smoked. My captain had quit a year or two earlier. I finally decided if he could do it, so could I. Every time I started pitying myself because "everybody else is still doing it", I'd look around and find the captain. There he'd stand, drinking a cup of coffee. No dip. Since then, another guy has joined ranks with us. Now there are three examples that it can be done.
My point is that you can do it if you really want to. Then you can be that badass that sets the bar for the others. Don't matter that you're a youngster. You can still lead.