I like smoking, I really do. The ritual, the sense of community, the break from day-to-day routine, the chance to digest (both food and ideas) – these all were a big part of the reason that I spent 20 years smoking. The other big part is that I was hopelessly addicted. I did have some successful I quit periods in my life, but they were almost always the result of getting sick in some way and being unable to smoke. I did extend those periods, sometimes for months, by deploying nicotine lozenges and gums, but I would always get back on the bandwagon. I can’t rightly remember how I discovered e-cigarettes – maybe it was a bus stop ad or something like a Google ad after a search, but it did make me curious. A few short Google searches later, hours of reading and researching on user-focused, user-driven e-cigarette forums, and even more hours window shopping the hundreds of e-smoke retailers, I decided that trying a vaporizer was worth trying. Serendipitously, my wife was taking the kids to see the grandparents and I had the necessary free time to do some real shopping. After my first visit to a local vaporizer retailer and trying various devices and even more flavors, I returned home with a small haul of gear. I did spend the rest of the weekend submerged in e-smoke forums, more research, more reviews reading, more of everything. It seemed like the e-smoke world had become very mature, but moving at a rapid pace, and it became somewhat overwhelming. But you know what it also overwhelmed? Yeah, THAT. Before I knew it, that last cigarette that I crushed out and tossed in a trash can someplace on Market Street, the same cigarette that would typically be followed by several others, that very cigarette became my last. And I honestly can’t remember when it was; no ceremony, no last sigh of resignation as I dreaded withdrawal and the contest of will. No constant searching my pockets for the pack and lighter, reassuring myself that I still had access to smokes. No mapping out in my head where it would be okay to smoke at lunch break, at least twenty-five feet away from all doors, windows and outdoor eating areas. No more guilt from sneaking a cigarette while my four year old is distracted at the park, or sending him and his sister to hang-out with mom while I answered the cravings. It was just gone. In its place there was vapor. A cloud that dissipates in moments in a room with no airflow, leaving no nauseating stench, no ashes, no carcinogens. At most, it will leave a slight aroma of the flavor that was vaporized, and that could easily be mistaken for a light air freshener, a sweet smelling soap, maybe even an aromatic candle. A few days later, something else I took for granted came back: my sense of smell, and consequently, a heightened sense of taste. Wines I took for granted suddenly became complex, layered offerings, fruits I enjoyed suddenly became amazing deserts. The line-caught, fresh wild salmon for dinner tasted richer and deeper. The vaporist lifestyle has completely supplanted my twenty years of living the smoker’s lifestyle. I don’t miss anything about it. It provides all the fringe benefits that smoking afforded, such as the pauses, the me-time, the digestives, but with none of the downsides. The bottom line: I managed to quit smoking while not even trying – vapor enabled this.