I won't deny it - I used to eat meat. I had no idea where my food came from, and had no interest in the healthfulness of my omnivorous diet. The one vegetarian I knew was weird, and the vegan student teacher at my school was downright crazy.
Then, on a normal summer's evening when I was twelve, my family had sausages for dinner. Nothing out of the ordinary - until I cut into my sausage. "Hey Dad," I asked, "what is that wiggling tube-like thing in my sausage?!" To which he responded, "it's probably an artery. You don't have to eat it."
This absolutely disgusted me, and from that point on, I didn't eat any processed meats. Then, in eighth grade, two of my friends went vegetarian. They started talking to me about animal cruelty, and I decided to do some further research. What I found was astonishing - that millions of animals are slaughtered each year just to feed me. A few days later, I joined them and became a vegetarian.
In ninth grade, I started doing more research into animal cruelty, slaughterhouses, and nutrition. I found myself gravitating away from all animal products, to the point that my family started telling people I was eating a near-vegan diet. Throughout this time period, I kept debating whether or not I should go vegan. My friends and family resisted, saying that veganism was taking it too far and that I wouldn't be healthy.
So I searched on iTunes for a vegetarian podcast that could hopefully give me some guidance, and I started listening to 'Vegetarian Food for Thought' by Colleen Patrick Goudreau. All of her arguments just made so much sense: for a cow to produce milk, it has to have a baby; when the baby cow is born, it is taken away (if a male, it is put in a crate and fed an iron-deficient diet so that he can be made into veal, and if female, she is forced to follow the same life of her mother) and we humans take that milk from the mother.
One night I had an epiphany. I cried for hours at the realization that by not eating meat but still eating dairy and eggs that I was still hurting so many animals. Really, how were these animals any different from my pet dog? I knew I had to do something, and I decided that from that moment on I would eat no animal products whatsoever.
I can happily say that I have been vegan for almost a year now and am loving every moment of it. The feeling that I am not hurting any animals is a great feeling, and I know that it will stay with me forever. :)
