Best Way to Stop is to Never Start

When I was a freshman at Lees-McRae College, across the dorm hallway lived two sophomores. They were great guys, hit the weight room on a regular basis and loved the Rolling Stones.

They also liked to smoke marijuana.

So about once a week, several friends would gather in their dorm room. They would put the box fan in the open window, get out the long neck Budweisers, turn on the music and start puffing away.

They always invited me to join in on the festivities. But since I didn't do drugs, I wasn't eager to watch them get high and laugh at stupid stuff.

One day these guys announced they were not smoking weed anymore. Not only were they wanting to get stronger in the weight room, but also the idea of getting busted and kicked out of school wasn't too appealing either.

A few months later, we all took a road trip to East Carolina University for Halloween. The campus during this time is one humongous block party. While there, I wanted to visit with some local guys I had not seen in awhile.

So my friends from Lees-McRae College and I decided to meet up again at Garrett Dorm, which is near downtown Greenville and the block party.

After visiting with the guys from East Carolina, I decided to find my other friends in Garrett Hall. As I got closer to the dorm, I could hear them laughing hilariously. Once inside their room, I could smell the strong odor of marijuana.

Yep, they had fallen off the wagon again.

A week later, after we had returned to school, I was standing in the hallway talking about the incident with my friend, Turtle (he had a thick neck from lifting weights).

I said, "I'm a bit disappointed. Ya'll said you were going to quit smoking that stuff. What happened?"

I'll never forget what he said.

"The best way to stop is to never start."

I can't explain it, but bells and whistles went off inside of me. His advice had quite an impact on my thinking.

In a moment of weakness, never open that door. Don't give in to negative peer pressure. You can't miss what you never had.

The best way to stop is to never start.