Almost 11 years ago, I made the ill-advised decision to begin using tobacco products. I was 15 years old at the time, and was allowed access to tobacco products by a friend. Who knows where he got them from? For this entire length of time, I smoked haphazardly, with little regard to how it affected my personal health. I was a very healthy young man, so why would I care? I won’t bore you the details of my youthful arrogance, but fast forward to about four months ago. My wife was 7 months pregnant, and still never carried on any open opposition to my tobacco use. I kept it outside, and life was swell. Until I landed in the hospital, for a mostly unrelated issue, for over a week. During my follow-up appointment with my physician, who was a new physician to me, he gave me the typical doctor-ese lecture about smoking, how bad it is for your lungs and heart, and how much it reduces your life expectancy. It wasn’t until he began talking about life expectancy, that I realized a change needed to happen. My son was due in less than two months by this time, and it hit me, that I didn’t want my son growing up, recognizing me by the smell of smoke on my clothes, in my hair, or that had permeated into my belongings. I had tried over the years, a number of methods to quit: the patch, nicotine gum, nicotine lozenges, and even Chantix (twice!). All any of it did was make me sick to my stomach, so it was easier to smoke. I won’t deny that I even enjoyed smoking, I can’t say that when I tried to quit, that I truly WANTED to quit. Over the course of the past few years, I’ve known of electronic cigarettes as alternatives, and used a few of them. However, none of gas-station variety electronic cigarettes, such as BluCigs, NJOY, or any of the other commonly recognized names (I spent hundreds of dollars trying them), did anything for me. They took the edge off of my nicotine cravings, but none of them completely satisfied my cravings. This is mostly due to poor battery life, and lackluster flavor options. Fast forward again to about two weeks ago – my son is 10 weeks old, and just full of life. So I began to look again into electronic cigarettes, only this time, I went further. I looked into a more advanced category than cigalike products, that involved the purchase of various devices, and eLiquid that you fill your tanks with. These eLiquids are available in a variety of flavors, and even more numerous strengths of nicotine, which allowed me to tailor this solution more to my own needs. As of today, it’s been two weeks since I’ve considered myself a smoker, and joined the ranks of vapers the world over. Through this two weeks, I will not deny that I’ve had a few (approximately 3) tobacco cigarettes. I will say that every time I have, it’s been nothing short of miserable – the taste is revolting, and the smell makes me nauseous. My sense of smell is returning, as well as my sense of taste. Every time I pass a smoker, I can smell it on them – something I haven’t been able to do in years. Even driving to work, I’ve been able to smell food from restaurants I pass inside my vehicle – again, something I haven’t been able to do in years. At first it was hard, vaping with my smoker friends, who had tobacco cigarettes in their hands. The smell was enticing, and the itch was there to bum a smoke, and ditch the vaporizer. However, as the days have gone by, that temptation has left, and I’ve no desire to light up again. I’m completely comfortable around smokers (aside from the smell – ha! Go figure!), and feel no want to grab a pack. I wake up every day, and I feel better and better. I can breathe better. Vaping has not only given me a less harmful alternative to smoking, but it’s given me a new hobby. A whole new world to enjoy, and a whole new enthusiast community to be involved in. Will I go back? Who can say? But do I want to go back to tobacco? Absolutely not.