I was raised in a house of smokers, both my parents and most of their friends were smokers. It was a comforting aroma, a memory of my childhood, and something that just seemed natural to me. So at the age of 12, when offered, I gladly accepted my first cigarette and to my friend's surprise finished it without struggling or coughing like she had with her first. My body had already adapted to it from over a decade of second hand smoke.
For three years I was a "social smoker." I never bought a pack, or stole any from my parents (oddly enough my parents' brand would put me to sleep) and only smoked when any of my friends had them an offered them up. At 16 I got my first job, and realized that the smokers got extra paid "smoke breaks" outside of the standard lunch break. "Hell, I'm a smoker, " I thought to myself, "I should get extra breaks too." So I started bringing a pack to work with me and my "social smoking" turned into a pack a day habit by the age of 18.
Fast forward 10 years to February 2008. At the age of 61 my father, who had been smoking since he was a teenage, had a heart attack. This, along with the weeklong hospital stay, forced him to quit smoking, change his diet, exercise more regularly and reevaluate his life. Now my mother and I still smoked, we just no longer smoked around him. He regularly admits that he misses cigarettes and that if informed he had a terminal illness he'd gladly go out, buy a pack and start up again.
We'll skip forward a few more years to August of 2011. My best friend, Adam, decided he wanted to quit smoking, mostly for monetary reasons, but also to not expose his children to it anymore than he already had. He stopped at the local gas station and purchased an e-cigarette, the next day he had his final cigarette. He was the first person I'd known to actually quit smoking using an e-cig, the few others I'd met in the past seemed to use them as more of a gimmick than a NRT device.
So I started doing research on e-cigarettes mid August, and stumbled my way through a lot of seller sites online until I reached the mecca of e-cigarette information, the Electronic Cigarette Forum. A message board devoted entirely to use of e-cigs. It was here I learned about the different styles, different manufacturers, sizes and suppliers. I learned a whole new language from it too, it's not an e-cigarette, it's a PV (Personal Vaporizers) and I didn't smoke cigarettes, I smoked analogs. I learned what an atty, a cart, and a carto are; the difference between 3.7V and 4.2V and VV mods, and how PG(Propylene Glycol) and VG (Vegetable Glycerin) effect your vaping (the act of smoking an e-cigarette) experience.
After spending the better part of a week reading through posts, written reviews, and watching online videos about them, I decided to order my first PV. I got a small analog sized model (KR808D-1) starter kit, an extra battery, a PT (Pass Through, a model that plugs into a USB port) and a bunch of juice (e-liquid containing nicotine) samples.
My first package arrived on Friday, August 26, 2011, it was my PV starter kit with pre-filled 18mg/ml tobacco flavored cartomizers. That day instead of smoking 20-25 analogs, I smoked 6. The next day I helped a friend move, an activity that would have promoted my smoking in the car norm, yet I only smoked 5. That was also the day my first juice sampler and blank cartos came in, and I swapped out the tobacco flavored prefilled I had from the starter kit for 24mg Gummi Bear juice and yes it tasted like gummi bears. On Sunday, Adam and I hung out as usual and spend the day vaping, I only smoked 3 analogs. On Monday I had 2, and on Tuesday, August 30, 2011 I had my final analog. It just tasted nasty, something that I had loved and relied on for over half my life, that I used to argue about how much better it tasted than other brands tasted like I had just licked an ashtray. For the rest of my life I'll remember the day I had my first (December 20, 1992) and my last cigarette.
It has been over 2 weeks since my last analog. In that time I've realized I can taste more flavor in foods, and I actually have a sense of smell and I don't smell like smoke. I also breathe better and to my girl friend's delight don't snore nearly as bad as I used to. I've already ordered more juice and built my first mod (a PV that doesn't look remotely like an analog) and started my mother, who still smokes, on the idea of vaping. Do I still get moments where I think about having a cigarette? Sure I do, I probably will for the rest of my life, the difference being I don't need one, and don't want one. When I get those thoughts I just reach for my PV and take a few puffs, nothing reinforces how nasty analogs taste like the warm sweet vapor of Caramel Macchiato, or Tiramasu, or Apple Pie, or Cotton Candy, or Waffles.....mmm Waffles.
For three years I was a "social smoker." I never bought a pack, or stole any from my parents (oddly enough my parents' brand would put me to sleep) and only smoked when any of my friends had them an offered them up. At 16 I got my first job, and realized that the smokers got extra paid "smoke breaks" outside of the standard lunch break. "Hell, I'm a smoker, " I thought to myself, "I should get extra breaks too." So I started bringing a pack to work with me and my "social smoking" turned into a pack a day habit by the age of 18.
Fast forward 10 years to February 2008. At the age of 61 my father, who had been smoking since he was a teenage, had a heart attack. This, along with the weeklong hospital stay, forced him to quit smoking, change his diet, exercise more regularly and reevaluate his life. Now my mother and I still smoked, we just no longer smoked around him. He regularly admits that he misses cigarettes and that if informed he had a terminal illness he'd gladly go out, buy a pack and start up again.
We'll skip forward a few more years to August of 2011. My best friend, Adam, decided he wanted to quit smoking, mostly for monetary reasons, but also to not expose his children to it anymore than he already had. He stopped at the local gas station and purchased an e-cigarette, the next day he had his final cigarette. He was the first person I'd known to actually quit smoking using an e-cig, the few others I'd met in the past seemed to use them as more of a gimmick than a NRT device.
So I started doing research on e-cigarettes mid August, and stumbled my way through a lot of seller sites online until I reached the mecca of e-cigarette information, the Electronic Cigarette Forum. A message board devoted entirely to use of e-cigs. It was here I learned about the different styles, different manufacturers, sizes and suppliers. I learned a whole new language from it too, it's not an e-cigarette, it's a PV (Personal Vaporizers) and I didn't smoke cigarettes, I smoked analogs. I learned what an atty, a cart, and a carto are; the difference between 3.7V and 4.2V and VV mods, and how PG(Propylene Glycol) and VG (Vegetable Glycerin) effect your vaping (the act of smoking an e-cigarette) experience.
After spending the better part of a week reading through posts, written reviews, and watching online videos about them, I decided to order my first PV. I got a small analog sized model (KR808D-1) starter kit, an extra battery, a PT (Pass Through, a model that plugs into a USB port) and a bunch of juice (e-liquid containing nicotine) samples.
My first package arrived on Friday, August 26, 2011, it was my PV starter kit with pre-filled 18mg/ml tobacco flavored cartomizers. That day instead of smoking 20-25 analogs, I smoked 6. The next day I helped a friend move, an activity that would have promoted my smoking in the car norm, yet I only smoked 5. That was also the day my first juice sampler and blank cartos came in, and I swapped out the tobacco flavored prefilled I had from the starter kit for 24mg Gummi Bear juice and yes it tasted like gummi bears. On Sunday, Adam and I hung out as usual and spend the day vaping, I only smoked 3 analogs. On Monday I had 2, and on Tuesday, August 30, 2011 I had my final analog. It just tasted nasty, something that I had loved and relied on for over half my life, that I used to argue about how much better it tasted than other brands tasted like I had just licked an ashtray. For the rest of my life I'll remember the day I had my first (December 20, 1992) and my last cigarette.
It has been over 2 weeks since my last analog. In that time I've realized I can taste more flavor in foods, and I actually have a sense of smell and I don't smell like smoke. I also breathe better and to my girl friend's delight don't snore nearly as bad as I used to. I've already ordered more juice and built my first mod (a PV that doesn't look remotely like an analog) and started my mother, who still smokes, on the idea of vaping. Do I still get moments where I think about having a cigarette? Sure I do, I probably will for the rest of my life, the difference being I don't need one, and don't want one. When I get those thoughts I just reach for my PV and take a few puffs, nothing reinforces how nasty analogs taste like the warm sweet vapor of Caramel Macchiato, or Tiramasu, or Apple Pie, or Cotton Candy, or Waffles.....mmm Waffles.
