My name isPaul, I am from Michigan I am 47 years old and have been a smoker since I was16 years old. I come from the time when smoking was sociably accepted and it seems everyone did. The family get togethers, holidays, trips in the car; everyone smoked. Mother, Father, Aunts and Uncles. It was second nature because everyone around me smoked. We could smoke in school, at work or virtually anywhere you went smoking was allowed, smokes were under a dollar a pack and you could get a pack of 25 because 20 just wasnt enough.
In 1985 I joined the Marine Corps and entered boot camp after graduating high school; you would think after 3 months of boot camp and the physical demands they put you threw there is no way you would want to go back to smoking. I wish I could say I made it through boot camp without a smoke, about half way through after riffle rangeI shot expert on the range and pulled maintenance duty for a week if you shot less that expert you were put on kitchen duty for the week, anyway during the week on maintenance duty a group of us found a set of PFC chevrons on a jacket. We took the chevrons off the jacket; put them on our uniforms and walked across the parade deck to the PX and purchased a pack of cigarettes. If any ofyou went to Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego California or any boot campfor that matter you know what a ballsy move that was, but that is the control smoking had on me. Nothing was going to stop me from getting that next smoke,not even the Marines. We never got caught smoking in the shower in the middle of the night while everyone else was sleeping and the pack went fast. I went on and completed boot camp but the first thing I did after graduating boot camp and and getting dismissed was race across the parade deck one more time to grab a pack of smokes before getting to the airport to fly home. Throughout my entire adult life I have smoked heavier at times but never under a pack a day.
Living in Michigan I was fortunate enough to work for one of the big 3 auto manufacturerwhere they provide us with a good insurance plan, I say this because I had the opportunity to try all the stop smoking devices on the market and I couldnt use cost a an excuse, all I had to do was get a prescription from the Doctor and any of the devices I wanted to try was only $5 dollars, and I tried them all; the nicotine patches, nicotine gum, nicotine inhalers, and all the pills as they came out. Needless to say nothing worked. I even tried some of the first E-Cigs back in 2009 when they first started coming out, I picked up a starter kit from a kiosk at the mall. The charge time for the battery, the lowoutput of the device the lack of availability to buy refills, the leaking and juice taste in your mouth made it very difficult to make the switch; I gave up on the device once again and went back to smoking thinking they can just bury me with a cigarette in my hand.
During the years of smoking I have lost family members as many of us has, but the day I had to look my Father in the eyes and say good bye because during his fight with cancer he became so week he started devolving heart conditions and after45 days in the hospital we had to make the decision to take him off life support. That was on Aug 21 2001, and I still tear up every time I think of him.He smoked from the time he was a teenager till he no longer could. You would think that would scare the life into someone, but that didnt and couldnt detour from smoking, this is the grip they had on me, my Aunt recently had a voice box installed due to throat cancer, on and on and on.
Fastforward to early May 2014, Im standing in a smoke shop picking up a carton of cigarettes for the week and I see they have a small electronic cigarette displayand I started chatting it up with the owner of the store about the devices he has in the case, I started thinking my 47th birthday is coming up at the end of the month and maybe I could try to quit one more time on my birthday. I went home and started doing research on these e-cigarettes, reading over reviews and stumbling across e cigarette forums and found one that listed vape shops in my area. I never heard of vaping before, the only thing I knew was the electronic cigarettes Ive seen in ads and on TV, but thinking Ive tried those and it didnt work before.
After days of research I decided to stop at my local vape shop on the way home from work and ask some questions about products in the store. With my birthday a few days away now I decided to pick up a VV 3.0, a tank and a few bottles of juice; got a quick lesson from the shop owner on how to fill the tank and use the device.
May 31 was my 47th birthday and true to my word to myself I put down my last cigarette and picked up my new VV 3.0 and starting using it. It has only been about 3 weeks now and I am learning more and more, this is the longest I have gone without smoking besides the few weeks in boot camp that I didnt have full access to smokes and I do not ever want to touch another cigarette ever again.
You can wake up now sorry to boar you to death but thats my story and Im proud ofit. And #IMPROOF
In 1985 I joined the Marine Corps and entered boot camp after graduating high school; you would think after 3 months of boot camp and the physical demands they put you threw there is no way you would want to go back to smoking. I wish I could say I made it through boot camp without a smoke, about half way through after riffle rangeI shot expert on the range and pulled maintenance duty for a week if you shot less that expert you were put on kitchen duty for the week, anyway during the week on maintenance duty a group of us found a set of PFC chevrons on a jacket. We took the chevrons off the jacket; put them on our uniforms and walked across the parade deck to the PX and purchased a pack of cigarettes. If any ofyou went to Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego California or any boot campfor that matter you know what a ballsy move that was, but that is the control smoking had on me. Nothing was going to stop me from getting that next smoke,not even the Marines. We never got caught smoking in the shower in the middle of the night while everyone else was sleeping and the pack went fast. I went on and completed boot camp but the first thing I did after graduating boot camp and and getting dismissed was race across the parade deck one more time to grab a pack of smokes before getting to the airport to fly home. Throughout my entire adult life I have smoked heavier at times but never under a pack a day.
Living in Michigan I was fortunate enough to work for one of the big 3 auto manufacturerwhere they provide us with a good insurance plan, I say this because I had the opportunity to try all the stop smoking devices on the market and I couldnt use cost a an excuse, all I had to do was get a prescription from the Doctor and any of the devices I wanted to try was only $5 dollars, and I tried them all; the nicotine patches, nicotine gum, nicotine inhalers, and all the pills as they came out. Needless to say nothing worked. I even tried some of the first E-Cigs back in 2009 when they first started coming out, I picked up a starter kit from a kiosk at the mall. The charge time for the battery, the lowoutput of the device the lack of availability to buy refills, the leaking and juice taste in your mouth made it very difficult to make the switch; I gave up on the device once again and went back to smoking thinking they can just bury me with a cigarette in my hand.
During the years of smoking I have lost family members as many of us has, but the day I had to look my Father in the eyes and say good bye because during his fight with cancer he became so week he started devolving heart conditions and after45 days in the hospital we had to make the decision to take him off life support. That was on Aug 21 2001, and I still tear up every time I think of him.He smoked from the time he was a teenager till he no longer could. You would think that would scare the life into someone, but that didnt and couldnt detour from smoking, this is the grip they had on me, my Aunt recently had a voice box installed due to throat cancer, on and on and on.
Fastforward to early May 2014, Im standing in a smoke shop picking up a carton of cigarettes for the week and I see they have a small electronic cigarette displayand I started chatting it up with the owner of the store about the devices he has in the case, I started thinking my 47th birthday is coming up at the end of the month and maybe I could try to quit one more time on my birthday. I went home and started doing research on these e-cigarettes, reading over reviews and stumbling across e cigarette forums and found one that listed vape shops in my area. I never heard of vaping before, the only thing I knew was the electronic cigarettes Ive seen in ads and on TV, but thinking Ive tried those and it didnt work before.
After days of research I decided to stop at my local vape shop on the way home from work and ask some questions about products in the store. With my birthday a few days away now I decided to pick up a VV 3.0, a tank and a few bottles of juice; got a quick lesson from the shop owner on how to fill the tank and use the device.
May 31 was my 47th birthday and true to my word to myself I put down my last cigarette and picked up my new VV 3.0 and starting using it. It has only been about 3 weeks now and I am learning more and more, this is the longest I have gone without smoking besides the few weeks in boot camp that I didnt have full access to smokes and I do not ever want to touch another cigarette ever again.
You can wake up now sorry to boar you to death but thats my story and Im proud ofit. And #IMPROOF
Come Oct 11, I'll be two years off the cigs, and after several times of putting on a patch and lighting up......
