This turned into a bit of a novel after reading back through it. For that I apologize, but I hope you enjoy. I’m 24 years old, and being that even before I was old enough to buy a pack of cigarettes (16-17 years old) I was smoking, I was on the road a lot, after finishing school, “chasing the dream” as a musician and more often than not our method of curbing a hungry stomach was to smoke, we ate when we could, but the smokes we our main focus. The most I had ever gotten up to was a pack a day. I got to the point that I was having issues breathing, really bad issues, I was getting out of breath going from one side of some of the smallest stages to the other, I couldn’t keep enough air in my lungs to sing half of what I was supposed to be singing, and that just not good at all. I coughed all of the time, and it just became socially awkward for me to be out with friends who didn’t smoke when I’d have to walk outside of where ever we were so that I could smoke and come back, then later in the evening repeat the process, normally more than just once. Quitting came for me in the form of cold turkey more times than I can remember, patches, gum, and even the blu e-cigs. I never really tried any of the prescription meds out there that supposedly were supposed to help, but everyone to whom I spoke about them were still smokers, so my mind was made up on that one very easily. No matter what I tried I never ended up quitting and I just remained a smoker. So, one day I was out and I got curious, I went into a vape shop, I didn’t have any intentions of quitting at that point, I just wanted to check it out because I’d seen the shops popping up a little bit of everywhere. I was greeted in the pleasant manner any employee at any retail shop would greet someone. He asked me if there was anything he could help me with and I just kind of said, “not really I just wanted to check this place out, since I’ve never been in a vape shop before.” Talking to the guy behind the counter, who even mentioned me flipping out my cig before walking in, he convinced me that vaping was something that I may be interested in checking out and learning about, so we set up in a spot at the end of the counter and he convinced me to come back the next day and buy a basic drip set up. He was a great salesman. I got my set up and figured that since I just dropped a pretty penny on this I should actually be serious and try to quit using vaping as my method. I started off vaping when I could, in the beginning it was a challenge for me, I was an hour into it and set up like a cloud chaser… I hit the fire button: I coughed… I hacked… I gagged… I realized that I needed to ease my way into this. So I vaped occasionally, and I’d still smoke a cigarette every now and then until I could just completely phase them out. I used really sweet, fruity flavors in the beginning, I still do occasionally, but right now I’m vaping on Coval’s Chocolate Doughnut. I started off at 12 mg of nicotine, and I’m down to just 3 mg, I’ve stayed steady where I’m at. I haven’t smoked a cigarette since a week after I first started vaping. I can barely stand the smell of cigarettes, let alone the taste, I took a hit from one that I found in my car and couldn’t do it, I wanted to vomit. Vaping has seriously helped me quit smoking, and I couldn’t be happier, nor could my family. Though some of them don’t think vaping is any better, but we are all entitled to our opinions, even if they are based on a lack of knowledge..