Good post, zina. A doctor friend of mine once said, "If you want to quit, you have to keep trying to quit, even if it kills you." It took me a while to understand his wisdom.
I 'tried' to quit at least five times during my 30 years of smoking, and I can say without hesitation that quitting smoking was the hardest thing I've ever done.
But here's the thing. Now that I've won the war, I can't imagine why I ever smoked those vile things.
And that's the hardest part about quitting - smokers are convinced that they actually 'enjoy' smoking. The truth is that the chemical receptors in the brain fool the pleasure centers into believing that they are being rewarded for smoking. It's all a lie - a lie that one simply can't see until one actually rids oneself of the addiction. There is no one who excels in denial and rationalization like a smoker.
To me, the key to quitting (and deep down, all you smokers know that you - the REAL you - wants to quit. You don't want to see $2000 a year simply vaporize into a pile of ashes. You don't want to cough up nasty phlegm every day.
And most of all...you don't want to wonder how long it will be before the doctor says, "I've got some bad news for you."
It's your right to smoke. It's also your right to kick cigarettes to the curb, where they belong.