I started smoking around the age of 19, when I was in college. Lots of my friends smoked and I wound up trying a cigarette now and again, and within a couple weeks I was hooked. After school I joined the Army, and despite not being allowed to smoke in basic training, I picked it up almost immediately after. So I wound up being a pack-a-day smoker for around 15 years. I knew it was horrible for me, and eventually I tried to quit. Cold turkey didn’t work. I tried nicotine patches and gum, and while they’d work for a couple weeks at a time, I always wound up breaking down and buying cigarettes again. Then a couple Christmases ago, my family bought me an E-cig starter kit. I think I had a few cigarettes left in the pack I had at the time, but I don’t think I even bothered finishing them. Vaping wound up working like a charm for me. When I started out I had a high level of nicotine – 24 mg, I think. In the 20 months since I started, though, I’ve gone down to the 3 mg level and will probably be buying nicotine-free E-juice before too long, with an eye to eliminating my dependence on it completely. I couldn’t have done it without vaping, and I hope others who have tried and failed to quit in the past give this a try. I feel so much better than I did before — I can run without coughing, my blood pressure has gone down a ton, and my friends and family don’t have to deal with my clothes smelling like second-hand cigarette smoke any more. It’s great.