Make forced breaks count

I am divorced and earlier this summer in August (I am from Chicago) I had a planned vacation to London with my 9 year old son. I have been smoking since I was 25 but always wanted to quit.

On August 3rd Friday, I smoked my last cigarette before I went to pick up my son from his mom's place to catch our flight to London. I left the cigarette packet on the kitchen island.

The 7 days in London and Paris passed with me and my son making memories for a lifetime. We watched shows (Hamilton, Les Miserables) we watched cricket at Lords and had great food. At this point, I had no intention of quitting smoking but also didn't want to smoke while he was with me.

Once we returned, I had every intention of smoking a cigarette from the packet I had left at home but a part of me was also toying with the idea of resisting that initial cigarette when I reached home and see how long I can last without one. I had already lasted 7 days without any cravings. Those 7 days however were different. Not routine. It was easy to keep my mind off smoking. While I experienced insomnia, coupled with the Jet Lag it didn't seem smoking related. I knew when I got back home, returning to my routine would be triggers for me to start smoking.

When I got home after dropping my son, I saw the cigarette packet staring at me. I took a cigarette out, put it near my nose and started looking for a lighter. Then something told me to not smoke. instead I held the half consumed packet under running water and discarded the packet into the garbage

I am 33 days smoke free as of today. Cold Turkey. I want to remember my vacation with my son as a trigger to get me off cigarettes. Now every time i get a craving, I think of how one puff would ruin memories on my vacation with my son and pull through