Just for fun

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2018 was the first time I heard about vaping and e-cigs. At first, I had no desire whatsoever to smoke because I never smoked before. I recall all the times I visited New York City, which was every weekend, I'd see someone vaping or using juuls. Honestly, I thought it looked cool whenever I saw other people blowing huge clouds of smoke in the air. As a photographer who loved experimenting with smoke for photoshoots and cool effects, I really wanted a vape stick or vape pen.

It took me about a few months to convince myself to buy a vape pen and juul. I wasn't pressured to buy it, I just found it cool for smoke tricks. When I first got the kit and looked up some YouTube tutorials on how to vape and use a vape stick, I immediately started doing it. The first week was bad because I was so interested in using the smoke for my pictures. At first, I thought I would not get addicted, but I was wrong.

I began carrying my juul and vape stick around everywhere and smoking it whenever I had the chance. I would take it to school and out on walks. It was not becoming something I was doing for fun anymore. I began buying tasteful flavors for my vape pen and stick. As time went on, I started learning vape tricks and this is where my problem began.

The more smoke I could inhale in, the better my tricks were, and I would practice on the daily. Only about 6 months into vaping, I began having a constant cough. In the beginning, it did not start off light for me. Immediately, I developed a dry cough and when I vaped, it got worse. It was hard to stop but sometimes we are blind to the signs containing our health. I could have easily blamed it on anything but I am a healthy person and before this, I didn't have such problems.

I decided to just use vaping for tricks and not inhale in so much but that didn't work of course. Anytime I used a vaping stick, I just broke out into bad coughing. My voice even started to become hoarse. My family would ask me why I spoke low or as if I had a sore throat. It turned raspy. It started affecting me during my sleep cause a dry cough is never fun. All the excessive coughing caused my neck to become stiff most nights and I developed insomnia for a while.

It was a tough choice but the first time I saw a white spot on my throat, I immediately stopped. I wanted to think it was strep throat but my doctor mentioned I should stop smoking. I threw out all my e-cigs and vape sticks and pens which were plenty. I began to see results after a month. The second month my dry cough went away. It was a relief and I'm glad I was able to quit. My health mattered to me more than some dumb tricks that were causing my health to deteriorate.