When I was little I wanted to be a vegetarian when I grew up. Actually, I wanted to be a famous singer most of all, but when I hit puberty and realized I was completely tone deaf, that dream slowly died. I evolved my dream into wanting to be a famous actress, and as it turns out I’m terrible at that too. But somewhere in the midst of all those big ideas I just wanted to be a vegetarian.
Sometime around 3rd grade I told my mom I wanted to stop eating animals. I was serious. I didn’t want to eat them because I loved them and realized how wrong that was. She told me I couldn’t. She said it was important for little kids to eat meat to grow up big and strong. She was the one who fed me every day and I understood her logic so I complied.
Occasionally throughout my life I would feel pangs of guilt for eating the same animals I loved to pet at the petting zoo or watch on TV. I refused to eat lamb chops the few times my mom made them because my favorite show was Lamb Chop’s Play-Along with Shari Lewis. Even though he was a puppet and not a real lamb, he was also my favorite stuffed toy, and he represented a real little fuzzy animal. I’m also sure one of my older sisters would have informed me that lambs are not only cute and fuzzy but they are also babies.
My parents were not obsessively strict but stern enough that I felt very obligated to follow their rules and live my life in a way that wouldn’t disappoint them, especially my mom. So, it took me a while to start living my life on my own terms after I moved away to college. In the 4 years I was in college I dyed my hair for the first time, got my first tattoos, got my first job, learned how to be my own person, and slowly gave up regularly eating meat.
The funny thing is, after all those years of feeling bad for eating Lamb Chop or the cute fuzzy cow I saw grazing by the road and named Pearl, the reason I find myself committed to minimizing my animal consumption is the damage it causes to the environment.
I’m not the greatest vegetarian who ever lived. I’m not strict on myself. I try to eat vegan most of the time but I also eat cheese and eggs sometimes, eat a huge seafood dinner every Christmas Eve, occasionally will try meat products when I’m traveling in new places, and on rare occasions will eat a fish if I know it was sustainably caught by someone I know. I’m sure a lot of people will say I should be stricter, and to an extent I agree. However, this is my life-long commitment. To use a cliche: it’s a marathon not a sprint.
I’ve met countless people who tell me about the time they were vegetarian for 6 months then quit and people who went straight into full veganism and quit a year or two later or people who try to give up more than just animal products and get burnt out. My goal is to minimize the impact my life has on the environment and to minimize the suffering I cause to other living beings. I’m not going to eliminate those issues entirely but I can wake up every day and make choices with those goals in mind.
