Center of the Universe

I started swiping smokes from my elders at age 10 to “be cool like the grown-ups.” I had picked up the habit fully by fifteen. After forty years of smoking EVERYTHING, cigs, cigars, and pipes, I was wheedled by my sweetie to try vaping (her kid brother had made the trade from cigarettes to vaporizer a couple of years prior). August 2012 (2+ years ago), I dipped my toe in the water with an order to Green Smoke and have been in full swim ever since. I vape more heavily than I smoked, but I have not smoked since I started vaping. As a smoker, my nicotine level was pretty high – regular Marlboro. My vaping nicotine level now oscilates between the ultra-lite and zero level. I’m finding that the addiction to the physical simulation of smoking is harder to kick than smoking or nicotine itself – thanks OCD. That anyone is fighting against vaping simply reaffirms my view that the anti-pleasure lobby is alive and well. Vaping could save millions of lives, but the self-appointed joy-police of the world would rather you died than indulge in something to which they object for whatever bizarro agenda they support. I never tried any of the gum or patch approaches to quit smoking. I didn’t really want to quit, even tho’ I knew I should. I don’t feel like I did quit. Vaping rules!