I started smoking when I was 24 because I discovered smoking a cigarette restored a feeling of well being when I was under stress. Bumming cigarettes from coworkers turned into buying my own and then turned into a daily habit. I knew full well I was putting my health at risk and I tried to quit cold turkey a half dozen different times. I once made it several months without smoking, so I know I had gotten over the physical addiction, but I still craved cigarettes strongly. Every quit attempt ended with an eventual relapse. I accepted that I wasn’t strong enough to stop and gave up on my goal to quit. Sixteen years into my smoking habit, I bought an electronic cigarette on a whim. I hadn’t researched electronic cigarettes nor did I plan to quit or even reduce my smoking. Lucky for me, one of the first flavors I tried was very enjoyable. I would happily vape that one flavor rather than smoke when I would normally be smoking. The particular electronic cigarette I was using didn’t perform well enough to allow me to quit smoking, though. It needed to be recharged often, had very little liquid capacity, and the delivery of liquid to the atomizer was inconsistent. So I continued to smoke when my e-cig wasn’t performing. I soon got to the point that I’d be smoking and thinking to myself, I’m not enjoying this. I’d rather be using my e-cig. So I started investigating e-cigs. I used online resources to learn exactly how they work and what I could do to make mine work better. Then I learned about modified electronic cigarettes or mods. Less than two months after I started using my first electronic cigarette, I bought my first mod. When I received the mod and the batteries and charger I’d need to use it, I was done smoking. It addressed all the performance issues of my first electronic cigarette. With my mod, I could vape whenever I wanted. I didn’t have to wait for batteries to recharge, liquid capacity was more than I could vape in a day, and liquid delivery to the atomizer worked wonderfully. It looked nothing at all like a cigarette and I didn’t care. I never intended to switch from smoking to vaping. The fact that it was more pleasurable for me than smoking made the switch easy and painless. The fact that I replaced one habit for much less harmful one is a tremendous blessing. At the time of this submission, it has been two years and 4 months since I last smoked. My health has improved tremendously! I no longer have a smoker’s cough, my weight and blood pressure are both down, and I don’t reek of stale tobacco smoke anymore. I don’t intend to stop vaping. It has become something of a hobby for me. I have helped many relatives, friends, and coworkers adopt vaping to cutback or even quit smoking altogether. The large variety and affordability of devices and flavored e-liquids available today compared to just two years ago is amazing! Vaping is not as simple as removing a cigarette from a pack, lighting it, and smoking it, but it’s not at all complicated, either. I’ve helped many people get started with less than 10 minutes of hands on instruction. It’s very rewarding to help people give up such a harmful addiction and show them a better way. Sure, it would be great if people could just walk away from smoking and never smoke again, but that’s just not realistic for the majority of smokers than want to quit. Tobacco harm reduction strategies have merit and using electronic cigarettes to reduce or quit a smoking habit is a great thing. Gotta love technology and ingenuity! Huzzah!