I started smoking quite young – I was smoking regularly by the time I was a freshman in High School, but I was stealing cigarettes from my parents quite often when I was about 12 or 13. I probably smoked my first cigarette around the age of 8. Needless to say, by the time I was 18, and able to purchase them legally, I was a dedicated, addicted customer of the tobacco companies. Hooked… line and sinker. I lost my mother to cancer in March of 1994. I attended her memorial three days before my 23rd birthday. I swore I would quit. She died at the ripe old age of BARELY 43. This began a long road of quits and starts and quits and starts. I tried cold turkey. Strangely enough, I had about as much success with this method as I did with the patches, gum, chantix, and all of the other cessation methods that always ended up failing. I, of course, felt like a failure myself. I remember having a patch on my arm while chewing nicorette… and smoking a camel. A real success story. A couple of years ago, a friend of mine pulled out an electronic cigarette, and told me I had to try it. I took a pull on it, and was surprised at how much like smoking it was, and felt like maybe I could give this a try to stop. or at least slow down. At this point, cigarettes were going for about 8 bucks a pack – I had switched to the Natural, additive free cigarettes, in hopes that they would be better for me. They DID decrease my cough, and I didn’t smoke as many of them, but I was still burning tobacco and inhaling it. So I bought the envy brand e-cigs. small, cigarette sized units, and struggled with the constant charging, buying over priced cartridges, etc. and they broke before long… I did have some success, but I was back to tobacco before too long. Then I found the eGo style personal vaporizers. 900 mah batteries that didn’t need to be charged but once every day or two. And flavored e-juice. Awesome. I started with 36ml nicotine level, and have decreased the level since. I smoked for a while when I started, but it wasn’t long before I preferred the taste and feeling of the PV over cigarettes. And that smell. Yuck. So not only have I not had a cigarette in 16 months now, I also started a small business selling eGo type personal vaporizers to try to share this miracle I’ve found. Here’s the truth. E-cigs have saved my life. I feel a million times better. I can run. I don’t get out of breath climbing stairs. I don’t cough all the time. I have energy. what’s best is that I don’t crave cigarettes. I often vape nic-free e-juice, and find myself puffing on my vape less often as time goes on as well. This thing has worked for me, and I am proud to say that I am VAPER. NOT a smoker.