Why did you start using tobacco?

[Annie56]

My parents smoked. Menthols (bleack!!). Their friends smoked. Me and my little gang stole our parents' cigs, just to cause some mayhem.

'Social' smoker in the Navy. I can quit anytime.

Began smoking heavily, when I hit 'writer's block', during my undergrad.

Became a 'chain smoker', when i found myself, in my mid-thirties, trapped in a terrible situation as a result of a really bad decision, called 'marriage'.

I split, in 2005. By June of 2006, my divorce was final. I found a sort of 'smoker's AA' @the local hospital, and have been 'quit' since then.

I vape, i guess, because the little nicotine boost keeps me going for the graveyard shifts that I pull. But honestly?? I love the HECK out of rba's. I loved building models as a kid (yeah, I'm a bit geeky). As an adult, you aren't supposed to play around like that. 'Playing around', with my rbas and my multimeter, I unwind, and feel a little bit like that kid, that I used to be, who had all questions, no answers, and 3000 miles away from the 'know-it-all-adult' that i became.

Funny, but over the years, since I have been 'quit' from smoking, I have suffered from 'writer's ........', where you can't plug up the word-processor function of your computer, no matter HOW many Immodiums you pop.

In closing, quitting is worth it. Your family, and your friends will be thankful for it


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Cam93]

I started when I was 13. I was hanging out with "the wrong crowd" and I was the youngest of the group. Everyone else smoked so of course it seemed "cool".

 

[roach52]

Summer of 1977 and I had just turned 18. I was working in a pizza/hoagie joint right at the edge of campus. I think I was the only one that worked there who didn't smoke, including the boss. But despite being a smoker himself, he didn't want anyone smoking in the area where food was being prepared, so everyone that worked there took smoke breaks, except me. One relatively slow day, I left the food prep area to sit at one of the tables with a couple of people who were taking a smoke break. The boss came out and asked "Hey, why are you out here, you don't smoke!" So I walked to the front of the store and put enough change in the cigarette vending machine to buy a pack; I'm pretty sure a pack cost still cost less than $1.00 at that time. It took it and the pack of matches that the machine also provided, went back to the table, lit up, and told the boss, "Now I smoke, and I get to take breaks too, OK?"

I knew it was stupid. I promised myself I'd quit in September when my girlfriend got back to campus (she was 400 miles away for the summer). However, the day she got back, she ended the relationship and left me heartbroken, so I kept right on smoking.

Almost the same scenario for me - if you smoke you got extra breaks if not you would be lucky to get any. The habit stuck.

 

[Mermaaan]

Apparently I went through a stupidity phase after college and started in my early twenties. Waiting tables, half the staff being smokers, back when you could still smoke in restaurants... Lots of spending the night's tips at the bar right after a shift. The stars were aligned for me I guess.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Craybee]

i started in my early twenties too. used to go out to the clubs a lot back then (90's) so i began with smoking a clove or two with my friends when we were out because they were kinda popular back then and they smelled soooo good … the cloves, not my friends. but cloves made me kinda nauseous so then i'd have a few drags of a friend's regular ciggie. eventually i bought my own pack. in the beginning it took me a month to go through an entire pack. my starter brand was Virginia Slims, which we playfully called Vag.ina Slimes. after about a year i was a pack a day smoker and had switched to Marlboro Lights. never could stomach Marlboro Reds, or any other full strength ciggie. fast forward twenty years to 2013 and I was finally able to give up tobacco completely when i got my first e-cig starter kit. w00t!

 

[DingerCPA]

Mom smoked cigarettes (HATED that smell); Dad smoked pipes (LOVED that smell). Tried analogs a few times in high school. Smoked a little bit in college. Started pretty "steadily" a couple years after college and finally decided I don't need them anymore.... LOVE vaping (and the smell)

 

[JaRod]

Thirty some years ago it was actually cool and trendy...and stupid

 

[TheCloudness]

well, i just wanted to be cool

 

[Flaggonmalley88]

My half sister got me hooked on dipping, I have been regularly dipping now for 23 years and I am glad to say I have only 2 pinches left in my can. I have dipped chewed snorted (snus) all kinds of tobacco and my family is begging me to stop, so I figured since I am changing my diet, exercise why not change my tobacco habit. I have a Cool Fire 2 (bone stock) and I am vaping about 4ml of 6mg spearmint 50/50 pg/vg. I am going to bump it up to 12mg and switch to a 90/10 vg/pg if I can find Alpha juice The Dude in Portland or beaverton

 

[NealBJr]

Was raised with my mother who smoked, and hated it. I had both my grandparents die from smoking. At the age of 20, I was severely depressed. I started smoking "for the hell of it" and in that day, my reasoning was "at least I'll die sooner and not be a lonely old man". Well, 9 years ago, I met my now wife, and 6 years ago, my son was born. 1 1/2 years ago, I thought... I won't be a lonely old man.

on a related topic....

I didn't start ecigs to quit, but as a safer alternative so I can vape indoors and not pollute the air my children breathed. When I was down to 1-2 cigarettes a day, I was like "I wonder how long I can go without a cigarette" after 3 months, I was like wholly cow... that's a long time.. let me light one to see what they taste like. Took three puffs, put it out (with a bad taste in my mouth) and never smoked since.

 

[Taowulf]

Smoked cigars a few times, had dreams about smoking analogs (yeah, really), parents didn't smoke but one of my grandparents did. Just started one day and didn't stop until about a month ago. Flirted with quitting a few times, became an anger beast that no one liked. Then I asked a guy about e-cigs at the smoke shop I would buy tobacco and tubes at. Now I am happy.

 

[Cloud Junky]

I wanted to die of lung cancer in the next 45 years...

 

[sunnyberra]

I grew up around it. Every adult I was around smoked, and I just ... started. By fourteen I was a chain smoker, and you could find me huddling with the others in school bathrooms, between classes and at lunch, sneaking in a cigarette, because I could not function going the whole day without one (I once caught myself trying to light up right in class because I tried going for two classes straight (3 hours) without smoking, another time my purse started smoking from a short I didn't put out all the way. Fun times :/ ).

Now, almost every three hours at work, I'm still going to the bathroom, but now to vape. Some actions really don't change that much, I guess, hahahaha

 

[emily n portland]

My dad smoked, so I knew it was gross when I was young. Lucky for me none of my close friends smoked when I was young, so I didn't even try one till I was 18. Why then...to be cool of course. Wanted to do that cool "flicky thing".

Went to college, smoked when I went out....to be cool. Pack of girlfriends all went in on a pack of cigs to share for the night...none of us would bring a lighter to the bar/party. I remember finding out later boys knew to make sure they brought multiple lighters to any party.

Then at 21 I bought a pack for a late night 200 mile drive home...to have something to do. After that I quickly escalated to a pack a day smoker. I still look on that pack as one of the dumber choices I've ever made.

 

[RonRichards]

It was cool and interesting at age of 17

 

[rizraz86]

Don't ask me why....... I think it was cool to be a smoker exactly 30 years ago....... and almost everybody around me was doing it.

 

[LubeTech]

Summer of 1977. That's about the time I started smoking. I was 15. Used the tobacco to cover up the "Wacky tobaccy" smell. I thought it worked, for a couple years. Then Dad told me "It didn't work, we knew".
Wish they'd have told me sooner.

 

[Johnnie Price]

I wanted to piss off my girlfriend. We broke up 2 years later and I smoked for another 12 years.

 

[Spacedancer]

I was 15 and wanted to be "cool"

 

[Fitzie]

It's what everybody did during breaks when I worked one summer at Burger King. I thought I'd quit when I returned to college, but by the end of the summer I was already hooked. So much for that brilliant idea.