first time with tobacco specifically or nicotine in general? i'll give both, as someone who vaped for two years in highschool and now smokes cigarettes socially on the weekends but no longer owns a vape.
my first time with nicotine was hanging out with some friends after school (i was in highschool, 14yrs old, a freshman, but all of my friends were around two to three years older than me, which has always been the case), and someone offered me their vape.
some background info: my whole life i'd been completely opposed to smoking, like obnoxiously so, one of those annoying little kids who fake-coughed loudly whenever people smoked near them. i saw nicotine as a stupid, pointless, sorry excuse for a drug (what's the point of dying over something that won't even get you high?) and it'd never really interested me.
at 14, i wanted to try LSD. desperately. i was obsessed with it. this might seem completely unrelated, but bare with me. since i was hyperfixated on psychedelics, i was always trying to come off as experienced in hopes that this older crowd i was hanging out with would let me trip with them (which would eventually happen, but that's a story for another day). i was curious, and i didn't want to tell them i'd never done it before, so i hit it. i didn't know how to inhale, so i was honestly underwhelmed, but i would keep doing it socially from then on.
my first time with tobacco was maybe a month later, and consisted of very slowly smoking a camel blue on the back steps of my childhood home while my mother was out of town, and trying my best to act like i'd done it before in front of the same "cool" older friends (heavy quotes there) (also keep in mind, i still didn't know how to inhale, so i doubt my performance was especially effective lol). it was weird; i'd been smoking weed and inhaling for a few months at this point, but for some reason that came naturally, whereas inhaling nicotine was something i had to be taught how to do.
my first time actually getting a buzz and inhaling properly happened when i already owned a vape. i was at a friends house, hitting my vape and just blowing it out, still 14, still doing my absolute best to "fit in" with mixed success, when a friend (who even now several years later is one of my best friends) asked me: "so, do you ever inhale?" "what do you mean?" i was so confused. when i took a pull on the vape, wasn't that inhaling?
"try hitting it and then taking another breath" i did, and thus began the addiction that would last for the next two years (and on, if you count my weekend cigs and occasional hits from other peoples' vapes). i got the standard issue head rush, buzzing feeling in my face, dizziness, etc. total a-ha moment for me like "ohhhhh, *this* is why people enjoy this" and i was hooked almost immediately. god, i was so dumb lmao
