Hello, my name is CJ and I’ve always lived my life with simple goals. My first and foremost goal has always been to never regret anything I do. I’m 28 right now, and I think I have done a fair job of this, except for the past 12 years I have had one habit I regret ever starting. Before I ever graduated high school I started smoking, before I was legally able to purchase cigarettes. I guess I started because it made me cool, or a bad boy, but in the end, I cannot give a good reason. Since then, I have tried several methods for quitting smoking and have had moderate success with many of them, prescriptions, over the counter pills, gum, patches, and even cold turkey. I always came across 2 problems to actually staying away from cigarettes: idle hands, and stress. Any smoker can and will tell you that when they are experiencing higher than average stress levels, they will also smoke more than they normally do. I don’t know if it actually helps, the nicotine, or if it is the controlled order of actions required to smoke that helps calm the nerves. When you have recently, that being within a year i would say at least, quit smoking you have lost a method for handling stress, and I could never keep my stress level in my life low enough that I would not go back to cigarettes. For me, I have always been a person that needs something to do, something to occupy my mind, and hands. The absolute worst time i started smoking again was after a year i had not picked up a single cigarette, and then i started again because i was in a lull in my life and had nothing to do all day, everyday… smoking was at least something. A whole year smoke free down the drain for no other reason than I was bored. Sounds stupid to me now, and I would probably even admit it was stupid back then, but live and learn, sometimes a bit slowly but i still try to learn. I cannot remember the number of analog e-cigarettes (the e-cigs that look like actual cigarettes) i bought and got annoyed at for various reasons, but the end result was i would use one for a day and always go buy a pack of cigarettes after it was discharged. They never really satisfied me or lasted long enough to justify the cost at the time, and i had no idea there was better out there. Then as i was watching a show i do many nights of the week, i noticed the host was using an e-cig that was larger and very different from the ones i had ever tried. Truth be told i dismissed it because of my previous bad experiences, but every night he vaped on it and said he had been cigarette free for XX amount of time, and he did not even want a cig anymore. So i bit the bullet and went to the local head shop to buy a pen sized ecig (between analog and APV in size). IT WAS AWESOME! But not enough *sigh* the package i bought had 2 ecigs, and 3 atomizers, and for it to last a full work day, not all day, just work, i had to take it all with me and by the end i was completely out of e-liquid every time. Those little pens got me thinking, not for me though, for other family members that are smokers. I started pricing the devices online to give to them as a gift, that maybe they could quit like i had. As i looked and looked and looked, i realized i had just barely scratched the surface of ecigs: APVs, Mechs, kicks, 18650s, cartomizers, atomizers, clearomizers, RBAs, and there is still new and innovative devices being made now. I could have given up there, but i decided to dive in head first and learn as much as i could, i spent two weeks researching and looking up as much as i could. I bought my first APV and a few accessories for it, since then? I havent touched a cigarette, havent WANTED a cigarette. I can smell them from a distance now, where as before you could hold one under my nose and with as much as i smoked i probably would not have noticed. It’s been over 6 months now, I’ve made several mistakes along the way in trying different ways of vaping, and spent a chunk of money as well, but… I’m happy with my purchases, even the over priced ones, not because I got a good deal, but i have a way to not smoke, not want to smoke, and it feels great to be able to say that after too many years of smoking.