I had my first cigarette in middle school. It was kinda awful and low key kept me away from nicotine for a while. It wasn’t until college that nicotine really sunk its teeth in and I think part of that is due to early vapes and hookah.

Still, I shudder to think about what health condition I’d be in if vapes weren’t an option and as mentioned, hookah has been around the whole time adding flavors to nicotine and making it “cool”