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For the Youth, too!

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EUREKA! You can help us start another project! We can help our youth, too. The Commitment has been concentrating on people who are hooked already, whether smoking, alcohol, or drug abuse. Even more! It's a long, hard road to quit if you've been addicted for many years. You have to want to quit and you'll need lots of support so don't let it get to that point. DON'T START! That's where the youth come in.
I did a "Commit to Quit Night" 3 or 4 years ago, the turnout was nice for the spot we picked. Out of these people, I came upon a new idea. There was one adult who commited to stop drinking and smoking. I asked the father of three young girls 11 to 16 who entertained as hula dancers that night if they would sign the commitment never to start smoking or using street drugs. I was surprised when he said, "They'll all sign." The father witnessed their commitment with his signature. It was a joyful and moving experience for everyone.
Then a young boy, who was with his father also wanted to make The Commitment and signed never to start smoking or using drugs unless prescribed by a doctor. That made the evening worthwhile, having the kids make The Commitment not to start addictive habits.
It's much easier not to start a potential bad habit than to give up one you already have. If you read The Commitment book, you'll see a newspaper article where a teacher in Bradenton, FL made a commitment with a lot of her students. Eight years later, they had a reunion at the school and guess what? Not one of the children had ever broken their commitment to the teacher and smoked even one cigarette.
That article reinforced my own feeling that if you are a sincere person with integrity, you can conquer bad habits. I stress that those who are severly addicted should immediately see a doctor right away. Your life is in jeopardy. I speak as someone who knows. My mother made The Commitment with me and lived to the ripe old age of 97, fully coherent. My case is different becase I cheated on my commitment to her and ended up suffering with THREE aneurysm operations. I still have another aneurysm in my aorta to boot.
I saw an article in a professional medical journal that they're just finding out that smoking can cause aneurysms. I knew it all along because no one in my family ever passed from an aneurysm--let along ever even had one. And the only way to get rid of it is surgery. I'm sure I only have maybe 3-5 years left on this planet simply because I couldn't handle another operation of that magnitude, nor do I want to try. So, I feel like Albert Einstein did, who when told he had a brain aneurysm, said, "If it breaks, it breaks." He died of the aneurysm not many years after his diagnosis.