It’s Friday and I’m spending the night at home. I don’t really feel like partying, or seeing people for that matter. Another reason to why I don’t want to go to the pub with my friends tonight is that I quit smoking seven days ago. I realize that not going to the pub because I quit smoking sounds odd but I have my reasons.

1. Alcohol and cigarettes goes hand in hand for me. I always smoke twice as much as usual during a party night. A night out without cigarettes will be a great challenge. Much harder than drinking my morning coffee without a cigarette in my hand or coffee break at work without a smoke.

2. The majority of my friends smoke so hanging out with them would make smoking very, very tempting.

3. All of my attempts of giving up smoking have failed because of party smoking. I’ve been nicotine free for a couple of weeks, had a few drinks and thought “Just one cigarette won’t hurt…” But it’s never just one cigarette and soon I decide that it’s OK to smoke at least when I’m partying. Then I figure I can have a cigarette once in a while during the rest of the week as well and pretty soon I’m a full time smoker again.

So yeah, to make sure I succeed this time I have to avoid party nights for a while. I’m fine with that because I really want to quit this time. It will take fifteen years for my lungs to repair themselves enough that the risk that I’ll get lung cancer will be just as small as of a person who’s never been a smoker. I’ll be in my forties when all the damages my eight years as a smoker have done will be totally erased from my body. That’s the scariest thing. Even if I quit now I’ll still suffer a great risk of getting lung cancer for many years to come. I knew it takes a while for the body to recover but I didn’t know it takes that long. Obviously this scares the hell out of me so it’s absolutely crucial that I succeed this time. Eight years is enough.