Hello fellow vapers and faithful blog readers. Today I'm writing a very personal post about my life up to this point, experiences with smoking and transition into vaping. It all began when I was a child, growing up in Massachusetts, it was the end of the era of 'smoking sections' in restaurants and bars that allow smoking. Every time we would go out to eat, my parents would comment "Gross, smells like someone is smoking." Truth be told, I enjoyed the smell, when we went to the fair, I would always smell people smoking cigarettes and cigars and I would love the aroma but my parents always called it 'gross' and 'disgusting.' I never told them I enjoyed it for fear of the repercussions. My parents never smoked, my grandparents never smoked, only a couple people in my family smoked, I was an outcast.
During high school, my friends started smoking cigarettes (among other things) and I stayed away from them for a while. Some of their parents smoked and they weren't ostracized for it, I never thought I'd ever be a smoker. After more and more friends tried cigarettes, I was curious. I bummed one off a friend and I couldn't inhale right, coughed like hell and felt woozy. Didn't think I would ever try it again but I felt like part of the gang by doing it. A rebellious girl at my bus stop was a smoker so I bummed them off of her almost every day and finished it by the time I got to the end of my street. After a while, I was looking for people to buy them for me, only being 17 at the time. I was ashamed of my newfound habit since no one in my family smoked and I didn't want people thinking my parents raised me wrong. I'd go to friends houses to smoke or on long walks around the block. Masking the odor with cologne or excuses that it was my friends doing it while I was in the room. I always thought I was getting away with it but in the back of my head I felt my parents knew the whole time. My 18th birthday came along and I was happy because now I could buy my own cigarettes and hide them in my vehicle. I hid the fact that I was a smoker from my family for years, I'm sure not many of them know I was a smoker to this day. After a while, cigarettes got to be very expensive, buying multiple packs a week so I started smoking the cheap ones. While cleaning out my car it wouldn't be rare to find 30 or more empty packs. I even rolled my own for a time in desperation and further tax increases on cigarettes.
After my 21st birthday, it only got worse. Every drink, I would go out for a smoke. Freezing cold, blazing heat, didn't matter, just needed to get my nicotine fix. Morning's after a night of drinking were the worst; chest pains, struggling to catch my breath, wheezing. This continued for a few years before cigarette prices were close to reaching $8 a pack. I was broke working a crap job and I had enough. A co-worker had recently purchased a gas station e-cig and I decided to give one a try. I had to buy the regular tobacco cartridges because they were out of menthol. I didn't like the taste very much and they made me wheeze more than cigarettes. I found myself still going out for smoke breaks until I eventually lost the stupid thing. Continued smoking for a few more months until my girlfriend at the time decided she needed to quit smoking (which basically means I had to quit too or I wouldn't hear the end of it!) She had used an e-cig previously and had given it up for analogs (regular cigarettes) as well but when times got tough, the e-cig was the only option. I didn't bother with the gas station versions this time, instead I chose a simple 510 battery with a drip tip and menthol liquid. For the first time, I was happy without needing to smoke!
It didn't take long for me to start having problems after only a few weeks of vaping. Batteries broke, charging packs broke, dealing with vendors and their ticket systems was a hassle, shipping time and crappy juices. I toughed it out and started getting better supplies and starting my vaping adventure. That was about 7 months ago. Here I am in my 10th month of vaping and I've got over 100 bottles of liquid, a bunch of mods, devices and batteries. I have companies wanting me to review their products and vendors sending me liquid to review. I don't ever want to touch a cigarette again in my life, even my parents approve (somewhat) of my vaping and are proud that I got off the real things.
I just wanted to share my story, I hope you enjoyed reading it and learned a little bit about my history of smoking and struggles to get off tobacco for good. Always remember, an informed vaper is a happy vaper! Thanks for reading.
~Nick
