Welcome to the Moth podcast. I'm Michelle Jalowski. It may be a new year, but I've got pretty much the same resolutions.

I'm going to start reading a book every week. I'm going to take more walks. I'm finally going to find a way to keep that Trader Joe's Orchid alive for more than a month.

Check back with me in March to see how I did. But sometimes the best thing you can do

isn't to start something new. It's to think about your old habits that you don't love,

the things and ideas that aren't serving you, and decide to leave them behind. On this episode,

we've got two stories about the good that can sometimes come from quitting. First up is Ian

Stewart, who told this at a mock story slam in Portland.

Here's Ian live at the night.

I remember my first cigarette almost as well as I remember my last.

My first one,

it was all love and honey.

It tasted good.

It felt good on my lips.

It melted my brain like chocolate under a hot marshmallow.

Last one, not so much.

It was one of those random summertime hail storms, and I was huddled underneath this little

overhang, smoking it with abandon.

Desperate need.

I smoked it all the way down to the filter,

flicked it into this little flower pot that, poor little thing,

never saw anything beautiful.

And I felt so frustrated to myself, so ashamed.

...