Gotta Learn to Crawl Before You Can Walk

I can still remember it like it was yesterday I was 12 years old and I had just shot my first deer. After i gutted it out we were all standing around and I was handed a can of Copenhagen and told “you’re ready for this now.” The smell wasn’t appealing and the taste wasn’t great but I thought it was cool because that’s what the grown ups did. Then came the dizzyness and the upset stomach, looking back its hard for me to believe that I ever tried dipping again.

When I got home from deer camp that year I had two things to brag to my buddies about shooting a deer and taking a dip. Then one of my friends stole a can of Copenhagen from his dad and we all snuck out into the woods and dipped. By the time I was 13 I had an older cousin and friends brothers who would buy me my own cans, I wasn’t dipping a lot but I was getting into the habit of doing it every day. By the time I was 16 I was dipping a can a day, by that time I could walk into certain stores and buy it myself. Finally my 18th birthday came along and I was free to dip whenever and wherever I chose to.

Things were a routine to me for many years wake up ,dip, go to bed and so on. When i turned 23 I had gone into the dentist for a routine checkup and cleaning. Years of dipping had rotted away my bottom gum on one of my teeth. I got the standard lecture about not dipping and we scheduled a surgery to fix my gums. It was a skin graph where they cut a piece of skin off the roof of my mouth and sewed it on my bottom gums. One of the conditions of my recovery was that I couldn’t chew this was my first quit. I made it almost a year of being dip-free but one day one of my friends had a can and I figured that I could have just one. WHOOPS!!

Things went back to my routine of dipping while I did almost everything but I had always had the thought of quitting in the back of my head. It became a constant battle of quit dates then flaking or waiting until my can was empty but it never seemed to run out. Finally one day I decided to throw my can away and quit and that’s what I did. It seemed harder than the first time though I couldn’t sleep and seemed on edge. Finally after 14 days I went online to research the effects of quitting tobacco and found KTC. I signed up and started posting roll and battled my way to 100 days.

Now I am quit and loving it trying to re-learn how to live my life without nic. Even when the nic bitch drops you to your knees and you’ve gotta crawl to get where your going remember you gotta learn to crawl before you can walk. Thank you KTC, All my November brothers, and all the vets who have helped me along the way.
Crab

NOTE: This piece written by KillTheCan.org forum member #1crabbr