I am a 50 year old female who started smoking rather late, in comparison to most. I started at the age of 19 because I was a theater major at my college and all of the theater people smoked and all of my friends outside the theater smoked. I was already a fairly heavy drinker so the two went hand in hand quite well. There is no question that the major contributing factor to my starting to smoke was that my peers were smoking and I really thought it made me look more mature and more intelligent. There was always that picture in my head of the serious intellectual, sitting with a cigarette and a cup of coffee or a glass of scotch, contemplating the important issues facing the world. Man, had a built up smoking in my head! So, I started and within three months, I was a pack-a-day smoker. I smoked light cigarettes mostly but I also liked clove cigarettes and imports, when I could afford them. When I drank, however, I smoked a lot more than a pack a day. This continued on for the better part of 20 years. When I was in my late 30s, I became extremely ill. It was a non-smoking related illness. However, I was in and out of the hospital a lot and was on a massive amount of medications. I was almost completely bed-ridden. It was not practical to smoke for an extensive list of reasons. So, I quit. This is not terribly hard when one is on the verge of death. I remained a reformed smoker for the next 8 years. I then faced a rather difficult emotional issue and started up again. After 8 years! Even I couldn’t believe my stupidity. Within no time, I was at a pack – a- day again. This time, however, I did not think it was cool and it did not make me feel more intelligent. I knew almost as soon as I started that I could not let this go on another 20 years, particularly with my previous health crisis and the ongoing chronic illness associated with it. I had literally defeated death 8 years before and now I was willingly inviting it back into my home! In years past, I had tried the Nicotine patch and Nicoret and found both of them to be completely useless. I was truly at a loss. Then, I went to a concert and was sitting in the ADA section, like I normally do, and I saw a woman in a wheel chair smoking. At first I assumed it was a pipe of some kind for smoking weed, and didn’t really give it a second thought. That happens at concerts all the time. Then, about 20 minutes later, I was looking in her direction and saw a security guy moving in her direction. I leaned over towards her and told her to be careful so security didn’t see her and she explained that it was nothing to worry about because it was an electronic cigarette. I had seen a couple of adds on television at this time, which I gave little heed to and had no other exposure to them at all. She told me that she had been a smoker, had found ecigarettes and no longer smoked regular cigarettes. She explained vaping to me and how it was just water vapor. That there was nicotine in the juices but none of the other 150 chemicals that were in cigarettes. There was also no tar or smoke. She was absolutely sold on it. She then offered to let me try it. I did and was stunned. She hadn’t warned me not to take to big of a drag off of it and I actually felt the nicotine for the first time in a long time. It was the real thing! It also was a waffle flavored juice. The flavor was amazing! To this day, I don’t like any other flavors other than waffle or waffle-type flavors. She told me that she hadn’t had a single cigarette in two years and that she couldn’t have felt better. She gave me the name of the company I used and told me that I should think about investigating it if I was serious about quitting. She also told me that it was never advertised as a smoking cessation alternative because the FDA wouldn’t allow it but that I should not be fooled. It was the best way in the world to quit smoking! So, I decided for New Year’s that I would make the first New Year’s resolution that I had made in nearly 20 year and the resolution was that I was going to order one of these ecigs and try to quit smoking. When the package arrived, I got all of the elements out, charged the battery, learned about how it all worked and started to vape. I received the package on a Tuesday, and by that Thursday, just two days later, I had finished my final regular cigarette and have not had one since. That was 2 1/2 year ago. I became the town cryer for ecigarettes. I cannot tell you how satisfying it is to know that I will never purchase nor smoke another tobacco filled product of any kind. I have told anyone and everyone that would listen about ecigs and I will continue to do so. i think that they are lightyears better than any other type of smoking cessation product. I can’t say enough about how many different varieties of instruments there are to use and types of nicotine juices there are. Anyone can find something that they will like and that will allow them to give up tobacco. I simply could not be happier that I found the world of ecigarettes and that I am now enjoying the status of being a non-smoker once again. Ecigarettes are quite simply the best thing to come along in regards to quitting smoking. Having faced a life and death health scare nearly 10 years ago, it gives me great peace of mind to know that I won’t, willingly at least, be facing another one because of smoking!