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I started smoking in college, but I was only 16 because I skipped a year of high school by doing algebra and geometry in summer school sessions (I thought those were hard subjects but they really weren't).
Back a little further, when I was a kid my uncle gave me a cigarette. It made me silly and giggly, but I didn't have any more. My parents both smoked. Most of my aunts and uncles smoked.
Anyway, as a college freshman I went to Colombia for a semester of pre-Colombian archeology and anthropology. The family that hosted me kept offering me cigarettes. They all smoked like mad. Finally I took one, and got that happy giggly high from it, so I went and bought a pack. I became a smoker. I got up to a pack a day.
In the final years of his life my dad had emphysema and was chained to oxygen. My uncle also got emphysema, but was able to stop smoking and take a diet that focused on lung health. He continued growing his garden and having a good life. I do think his life span was shortened by the lingering emphysema, though he never had to be on oxygen.
So in the fall of 2012, there I was on a pack a day, when I got a visit from my best ever friends from Dallas (where I lived for ten years), a couple who were coming up to their first vapeversary. He stuck his vape in my mouth and said "here, try this". It was interesting how it inhaled like smoke, hit your throat like smoke, and you blew it out like cigarette smoke.
They wanted to buy me a starter kit, but I didn't want them to bear the cost of my potential failure to transition, so I declined the offer and bought my own. I wanted just what they were using at the time, a pair of Ego-T batts, the old Stardust clearomizers, re-charger, wall wart, and a bottle of eliquid.
So I embarked on about six weeks of dual use, both vaping and smoking. I somersaulted through dozens of flavors when vape sellers gave free samples with purchases. On cold evenings at that time of year I started to look forward to getting home, getting warm, and having a rich, intense vape. I realized I loved vaping far more than smoking, and I was ready to quit the stinkies.
I'll always remember it was the Saturday after Thanksgiving 2012 when I had my last cigarette with morning coffee. As much as I wanted to succeed, and was ready to quit cigarettes, it still was hard for the rest of that day. I wanted a cigarette. The devil on one shoulder was saying "go ahead, have a cig, nobody is stopping you". The angel on my other shoulder was saying "you're doing great, keep vaping, don't put this off another day". When I finally went to bed that night, I knew I was a nonsmoker forever. I had no cigarette cravings the next day, nor ever again.
Of course since then I've graduated to better equipment, now have one flavor as my all day vape, unflavored for when I'm around other people, but I am at peace. I've told my story often, but I still see the success of that quit day as a miracle, the technology of vaping as a miracle, and I still love it.
Back a little further, when I was a kid my uncle gave me a cigarette. It made me silly and giggly, but I didn't have any more. My parents both smoked. Most of my aunts and uncles smoked.
Anyway, as a college freshman I went to Colombia for a semester of pre-Colombian archeology and anthropology. The family that hosted me kept offering me cigarettes. They all smoked like mad. Finally I took one, and got that happy giggly high from it, so I went and bought a pack. I became a smoker. I got up to a pack a day.
In the final years of his life my dad had emphysema and was chained to oxygen. My uncle also got emphysema, but was able to stop smoking and take a diet that focused on lung health. He continued growing his garden and having a good life. I do think his life span was shortened by the lingering emphysema, though he never had to be on oxygen.
So in the fall of 2012, there I was on a pack a day, when I got a visit from my best ever friends from Dallas (where I lived for ten years), a couple who were coming up to their first vapeversary. He stuck his vape in my mouth and said "here, try this". It was interesting how it inhaled like smoke, hit your throat like smoke, and you blew it out like cigarette smoke.
They wanted to buy me a starter kit, but I didn't want them to bear the cost of my potential failure to transition, so I declined the offer and bought my own. I wanted just what they were using at the time, a pair of Ego-T batts, the old Stardust clearomizers, re-charger, wall wart, and a bottle of eliquid.
So I embarked on about six weeks of dual use, both vaping and smoking. I somersaulted through dozens of flavors when vape sellers gave free samples with purchases. On cold evenings at that time of year I started to look forward to getting home, getting warm, and having a rich, intense vape. I realized I loved vaping far more than smoking, and I was ready to quit the stinkies.
I'll always remember it was the Saturday after Thanksgiving 2012 when I had my last cigarette with morning coffee. As much as I wanted to succeed, and was ready to quit cigarettes, it still was hard for the rest of that day. I wanted a cigarette. The devil on one shoulder was saying "go ahead, have a cig, nobody is stopping you". The angel on my other shoulder was saying "you're doing great, keep vaping, don't put this off another day". When I finally went to bed that night, I knew I was a nonsmoker forever. I had no cigarette cravings the next day, nor ever again.
Of course since then I've graduated to better equipment, now have one flavor as my all day vape, unflavored for when I'm around other people, but I am at peace. I've told my story often, but I still see the success of that quit day as a miracle, the technology of vaping as a miracle, and I still love it.
