Vegetarianism Part 2

I promised vegetarianism part 2 and here it is, whether you want it or not. In my my last entry I talked about my outrage toward the meat industry in general, but now it's time for sharing! As I said before I have been a vegetarian for a good sized chunk of my life. I'm pretty sure I was 10, or early 11 when due to the tragic death of my pet chickens I decided to stop eating poultry. A large controversy as it was almost thanksgiving and I refused to eat the Turkey. Luckily for me my parents became vegetarian shortly after because of the Nithyananda mission, and so unlike many other young Veggies it was a piece of cake for me. I never had to struggle with my own nightly dinners, or meatless breakfasts as many students do, the transition was simple and easy, partly because I went to India during the rough transition (for many people) period and didn't have a choice. By the time I was 13 I was a full fledge vegetarian not eating eggs, and with the exception of those stupid questions all young Veggies in the US seem to get: "if you were stuck on an island and the only thing to eat was meat, would you eat it?!" So besides childish questions and a couple one week summer camp issues I sailed through childhood vegetarianism. 

     So, when I came to Ireland and was hit full on by an Anti-Veg sentiment, for better or worse, I was not prepared. On the one hand it's great I got to live this long without major problem, but on the other it hadn't set me up for the inevitable time when I would have to fight for the diet I believed in. 

    Everyone knows Ireland is the land of meat and potatoes, and after only a few days I quickly  learned that potatoes doesn't cover you as an only food source. In addition to that everywhere I go the concept of vegetarian was as foreign as I was "so you'll have the fish?" "No thanks." "If you just eat a little it won't hurt you" "all the same I'd rather not, thanks though." At first I was apologetic and shy about it, but slowly I grew more into my stance on the matter, and spoke up. This was my diet, this was what I was going to eat, and that I wasn't going to. I'm aware that I made a few people annoyed, when people don't eat my vegan cupcakes because they're  vegan, sometimes I get annoyed. The thing I'm having to realize is, I need to stop caring (most of you are probably saying, well duh! At this point, but given my history hopefully you'll forgive me)  so used to vegetarian being the cool thing, the in thing, the right thing, this sudden change was so startling. It has gotten easy, a bit. An education process for all involved, most of all myself, that I'm sure will continue for the rest of my stay here. I'm assuming this is just the doorway to a world where being vegetarian is the hard path, yet as you may have gathered from the last entry I do believe it is "the path" and so will continue. It's definetly hard, but as one of my favorite quotes go "well behaved woman seldom make history" and while I doubt my vegetarian values will go down in history books, I still feel this applicable. Stick with what you believe in and sooner or later others will honor that, or at least (hopefully!) stop asking silly questions.