My name is Benjamin Rodgers, I am twenty-seven years old and have successfully stopped smoking cigarettes. This is how I have managed what seemed to be an impossible task. First, let me fill you in on my history with cigarettes. I smoked my first cigarette when I was only twelve years old. I thought they were ‘cool’ and quickly became addicted, often sneaking off and smoking with friends behind my parent’s backs. This was on and off for the next six years, as I was caught once by my parents when I was fifteen and stopped smoking for a couple years after. When I was seventeen, coworkers would often give me cigarettes and I became hooked very quickly. Eighteen rolled around and the very first thing I did on my birthday was go and buy a pack of cigarettes. Flash-forward nine years, I am smoking a pack a day at least and have known I want to quit for a couple years. I tried every single method of quitting I could find. Patches, gum, Wellbutrin, Chantix, cold-turkey, I even tried watching hypno-therapy videos online. I had given up trying and figured one day I would just hack up a lung and be forced to. I work in an office supply store and vaguely remembered making labels for a shop that had something to do with vapors. When I made the labels I thought it might have been some sort of aromatherapy. At this point I had no idea what vaping was. I then recalled these labels had flavors, not scents. I dismissed it as being odd and thought nothing more of it. A week later I tried a Blu disposable e-cig. Then it all clicked. I immediately searched for the store online and found the address. The next day I went in and bought my first real electronic cigarette. That day I took my remaining cigarettes and threw them in the garbage. The switch, once I had a decent setup, was easy. I have been using an electronic cigarette for three months as of 6/23/2013. In this time period I have had exactly three cigarettes. One because I wanted to know if I still liked the taste, which I do not. The other two were a result of my vaporizer (e-cig) not working due to user error. Currently, I have no desire to smoke another cigarette. I see people smoking all the time, I go to a bar every other Sunday where people smoke and I am not bothered in the slightest. I have even cut my nicotine consumption down by about half of what it was when I smoked cigarettes and find myself not using my vaporizer as much as cigarettes when I smoked. I credit this to the fact that when I smoked, I took every opportunity available to smoke because I did not know when my next cigarette would be. I have noticed that I do not wheeze when falling asleep anymore. I taste food again. A month after switching to vaping, I played basketball for two hours and felt I could go a few more. My smoker’s cough is nearly gone as well. Aside from the health benefits I have experienced I have also enjoyed not smelling of cigarettes. Another great benefit is not feeling guilty for vaping around other people. When I smoked I felt like I had to be away from everyone, even other smokers as the effects of second-hand smoke are even more damaging than smoking itself. That is my story of how I, a smoker of nearly fifteen years was able to stop smoking cigarettes and switch to a healthier smokeless alternative.