Tell me, you, smokers and vapers, what do you think about this. Don't let the experts (with/out an agenda) to talk in your place.
So, I will begin. I was a smoker for 41 years, and for 2 years I'm a vaper. So, technically I'm still a vicious guy. But I promise to ... vape until the end, but never smoke again.
I begin at 16, ''thanks'' to a girl. I had the illusion that I am more mature. I even felt that I'm more important. Pleasure? Not at all. Was almost a torment for the first couple of months. But I had to be brave, to be a real man. It was not long before I get used to it, and became addicted. And I begin to feel the pleasure. The smell, the warmth, the gesture, following the smoke slowly released from my poor lungs.. Those times I could smell a Kent cigarette from 10 feet away in open air. What a smell! Today, I could smell the ammonia from a modern cigarette from only 3 feet. I'm getting old.
Not long after, my sporting performances begin to fall, the quarrel with my parents about smoking became daily, and my almost empty pockets turns into some black holes. So, after 2 years, thanks to another girl, (!!!) I tried to quit. I really tried. I was in love. But I couldn't. In this way, from time to time, I kept trying.
In time, the pleasure became like this. First in the morning, a bad taste in my mouth. But quickly covered with two cigarettes, one after the other at the coffee. Followed by a little dizziness, and some cough. Walking was harder and harder, my heart giving me al kinds of signals, my lungs showing me that they had not enough air. In the evenings, the taste in my mouth became bitter. But still I couldn't quit.
Until I meet the electronic cigarettes. But was not easy. It took me 4 years to find the power to finally quit. And was a gradual process. The taste is not the same, the gesture are different, you have to learn how to vape, and to find the right combination of atomizer, liquid and aroma. Not easy at all.
So, it is worth to quit?
For me, definitely. My health problems are almost gone; no cough, no bitter taste, no unpleasent smell for me and those around. I can walk without problems. My crazy raids in the middle of the night looking for some place to buy cigarettes are history.
And my pockets ... By the way. I was spending around 1500 US$ a year for cigarettes, at a price of 4 US$ a pack. This was equal to about 5 monthly minimum wages in my country, Romania 3 years ago. Almost a half of yearly minimum wage on that poison that I used most of my life. And I had smoked only one pack a day!! How many Steem, or Bitcoin I could buy with those money, I don't even wanna think. I believe that I could be a millionaire today if I had turned all my cigarettes money in Bitcoin from 2011, when I find out about this. I could buy a small house with all the money I had burned in 41 years of smoking.
Now, my expenses for electronic cigarettes are about 20 time smaller. I mix my liquids, which cost me about 5 US$ a month, I make my coils for atomizer. Today I bought a new electronic mod and an atomizer for 50 US$, after 17 months of using the old one, which is still working. But for any eventuality...
This is my story. What do you think about? It's worth it?