I just wanted to share my little odd story on how I came to vape and stop smoking tobacco.
I started smoking 8 years ago. About a year after I had my first cigarette, I was smoking a pack a day. A bunch of people close to me at the time kept asking me when I was gonna quit. So I told them my "plan" just to shut them up. I said that when I get sick with a cold or flu, I only smoke when I have an insane craving and I don't enjoy it, so on my 25th year, when I come down with a cold or flu, I will stop smoking. I just picked 25 because its sounded like a good solid number, and it was a number that seemed pretty far away at the time. Just 3 years after making my pledge. I knew it was all bull. I had no intention of ever stopping...I loved it way too much. No one seemed to forget my pledge though, so finally around 22 I just told them I was probably not gonna stop, and I was just talking out of my .... when I made my pledge just to get them off my case. My grandmother smoked since she was fifteen and she died of lung cancer in 2004. I was devestated, but I still had no intention of stopping smoking and poo pooed anyone who even hinted at the idea.
So I turned 25 in May 2009 and was reminded yet again by the people in my lives that this was the year I was supposed to stop smoking. It had kind of become a joke now. I just kept jokingly reminding everyone that I had to get sick first as I took a drag off my ever present cigarette.
My aunt had smoked most of her life and was diagnosed with lung cancer in July. She was stage 4. I spoke with her on the phone when she was in the hospital, and she died 2 weeks later in early September. After she died, I still had no intention of quitting. I needed to smoke.
A couple weeks after she died, my friend who is a personal trainer wanted me to run with him. As I ran with him, I was trying to suck in air as hard as I could but the oxygen just wasn't getting to my blood and muscles quick enough. I knew it was from smoking, but again, I didn't care. After I ran, I came down with a strange respiratory illness. No doubt from running hard and being so out of shape.
The next night I was visiting my aunt (sister of my dead aunt) and her and I like to talk politics and other issues. She has been smoking most of her life, so we enjoy staying indoors and chatting over cigarettes and coffee. She then threw out the mention of "electronic cigarettes" asking if I've heard of them. I said I knew they existed, but that was about it. That was the extent of our conversation about e cigs. That night I went home miserable with my illness and the smoking that night made it worse. So I go home that night and for some odd reason, the one sentence where she mentioned e cigs stuck out to me. I spent the next 9 hours researching electronic cigarettes. After my research I though, "Could it be that I can still enjoy smoking, while not actually smoking?" I was amazed. I ordered my first e cig. The day it arrived I was still sick. I vaped for my first time. I knew at that moment that this thing could end tobacco smoking for me. I can't emphasize enough that I had NO intention of quitting smoking. I was not one of those smokers who ran around all day going "I need to stop this" or "Wow, I wish I could quit these". That was NOT me. I loved smoking cigarettes and my love for them was greater than my fear of cancer. I didn't want to die, but a life without smoking was a life I didn't want to live. When I tried that e cig, I realized I could still smoke and walk away from tobacco. Something that I saw as impossible, had become a reality. I kept my order of the e cig and vaping trial a secret to avoid any embarassment from people laughing at me for wasting my money. After a day of vaping, I knew I could walk away from tobacco. So I told my friends and family that I was quitting smoking and revealed my e cig that I had kept secret. The look of shock on their faces was so priceless, I wish I had my camera so I could have posted the pictures. And the day I started vaping and stopped smoking, my illness went away.
I made a half hearted prediction 7 years ago that I would stop smoking at 25 during a spell of illness. The only thing that makes that remarkable and strange, is that I had no intention of ever doing it. Its not like I said, "Hey, I'm 25 and sick, its time to follow through with my prophecy". It was a series of events that myself nor anyone on this planet could have created that led me to end my tobacco smoking.
You can call it what you will. A coincidence perhaps? A very odd coincidence that this prediction came true, however I firmly believe that this was too insane of a coincidence to have been by chance. I think God, my aunt, and my grandmother, know the truth.
I started smoking 8 years ago. About a year after I had my first cigarette, I was smoking a pack a day. A bunch of people close to me at the time kept asking me when I was gonna quit. So I told them my "plan" just to shut them up. I said that when I get sick with a cold or flu, I only smoke when I have an insane craving and I don't enjoy it, so on my 25th year, when I come down with a cold or flu, I will stop smoking. I just picked 25 because its sounded like a good solid number, and it was a number that seemed pretty far away at the time. Just 3 years after making my pledge. I knew it was all bull. I had no intention of ever stopping...I loved it way too much. No one seemed to forget my pledge though, so finally around 22 I just told them I was probably not gonna stop, and I was just talking out of my .... when I made my pledge just to get them off my case. My grandmother smoked since she was fifteen and she died of lung cancer in 2004. I was devestated, but I still had no intention of stopping smoking and poo pooed anyone who even hinted at the idea.
So I turned 25 in May 2009 and was reminded yet again by the people in my lives that this was the year I was supposed to stop smoking. It had kind of become a joke now. I just kept jokingly reminding everyone that I had to get sick first as I took a drag off my ever present cigarette.
My aunt had smoked most of her life and was diagnosed with lung cancer in July. She was stage 4. I spoke with her on the phone when she was in the hospital, and she died 2 weeks later in early September. After she died, I still had no intention of quitting. I needed to smoke.
A couple weeks after she died, my friend who is a personal trainer wanted me to run with him. As I ran with him, I was trying to suck in air as hard as I could but the oxygen just wasn't getting to my blood and muscles quick enough. I knew it was from smoking, but again, I didn't care. After I ran, I came down with a strange respiratory illness. No doubt from running hard and being so out of shape.
The next night I was visiting my aunt (sister of my dead aunt) and her and I like to talk politics and other issues. She has been smoking most of her life, so we enjoy staying indoors and chatting over cigarettes and coffee. She then threw out the mention of "electronic cigarettes" asking if I've heard of them. I said I knew they existed, but that was about it. That was the extent of our conversation about e cigs. That night I went home miserable with my illness and the smoking that night made it worse. So I go home that night and for some odd reason, the one sentence where she mentioned e cigs stuck out to me. I spent the next 9 hours researching electronic cigarettes. After my research I though, "Could it be that I can still enjoy smoking, while not actually smoking?" I was amazed. I ordered my first e cig. The day it arrived I was still sick. I vaped for my first time. I knew at that moment that this thing could end tobacco smoking for me. I can't emphasize enough that I had NO intention of quitting smoking. I was not one of those smokers who ran around all day going "I need to stop this" or "Wow, I wish I could quit these". That was NOT me. I loved smoking cigarettes and my love for them was greater than my fear of cancer. I didn't want to die, but a life without smoking was a life I didn't want to live. When I tried that e cig, I realized I could still smoke and walk away from tobacco. Something that I saw as impossible, had become a reality. I kept my order of the e cig and vaping trial a secret to avoid any embarassment from people laughing at me for wasting my money. After a day of vaping, I knew I could walk away from tobacco. So I told my friends and family that I was quitting smoking and revealed my e cig that I had kept secret. The look of shock on their faces was so priceless, I wish I had my camera so I could have posted the pictures. And the day I started vaping and stopped smoking, my illness went away.
I made a half hearted prediction 7 years ago that I would stop smoking at 25 during a spell of illness. The only thing that makes that remarkable and strange, is that I had no intention of ever doing it. Its not like I said, "Hey, I'm 25 and sick, its time to follow through with my prophecy". It was a series of events that myself nor anyone on this planet could have created that led me to end my tobacco smoking.
You can call it what you will. A coincidence perhaps? A very odd coincidence that this prediction came true, however I firmly believe that this was too insane of a coincidence to have been by chance. I think God, my aunt, and my grandmother, know the truth.
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