I started smoking cigarettes while I was still in high school. For years I was hooked, spending hundreds of dollars each month and coughing up a black mess every morning. I wasn’t happy, but I couldn’t stop. I was a slave to nicotine. It was someone close to me who bought me my first electronic cigarette. It was one of the tiny ones that look like a cigarette, and right away I loved it. I’ve been using an electronic cigarette for the last three years to comfortably wean myself off of nicotine completely. I feel the difference in my quality of life every moment, from being able to breathe easy, to running and hiking again, to knowing that I’m no longer actively killing myself. I believe my switch to vaping has saved my life. Thank you for hearing my story.