I have to admit that at the very beginning I was a bit uncertain about how it was going to work. Don't get me wrong - I knew I was doing the right thing. Having been vegetarian for many years before for ethical reasons I realised that you cannot be against eating meat and at the same time continue to eat cheese, eggs or drink milk, it's just pure hypocrisy. The animal suffering involved in the dairy and egg industry is even more terrible, if possible, than the one in the meat industry, for the simple reason that the animals live and suffer longer. Most people still have this image of happy chickens or happy cows running around green fields and happily providing us with milk or eggs. Nothing more misleading, even if the 'product' is labelled as free-range or ecological. There are not enough people in the world to make sure that every single animal is treated in a 'humane' way (and anyway, what is a humane way of killing someone, which sooner or later happens to all of them, for example the dairy cows being turned into low-quality burgers, soups or pet food?)
What stroke me after I have made this decision are the various attitudes I have encountered when people learn about me being vegan. I would assume that making a life choice that doesn't in any way hurt other people shouldn't result in others being hostile towards this choice. After all I never attack people who eat meat or whatever they want, I believe we all should be able to make our choices. Yes, I can discuss it with anyone if they want to, but that's not an attack. But it doesn't always work the other way. After quite some time of dealing with various attitudes among my family, friends and complete strangers, I could put them into following categories, some of them funny, some irritating, some even scary:
- 'but you can't be serious' - people who seriously and honestly don't believe you can live without eating at least cheese. I mean, come on, pizza without cheese, what kind of freak are you? Well, it does in fact taste delicious, if you know how to make good pizza.
- 'you will grow out of it' - I kind of like this one in fact, it makes me feel like I'm 16 all over again ;) Well, I won't grow out of it, sorry.
- 'but how do you survive???' otherwise known as 'and what the hell do you eat???' - this one is difficult to understand for me, as I really don't look undernourished or starving (unless you have my grandma's standards of what it means to be healthy looking, of course ;). And here people can be divided into those who are in fact willing to listen and learn about all the 'weird stuff' that we vegans eat and those who just assume that we eat nothing but grass and so there's no point talking to us about it. The best way to deal with the 'what do you eat' question is always just cooking some nice food and letting people taste it. The chances that they will still think we eat nothing but grass are not too high. They usually come back for dinner ;)
- 'but you are going to start eating 'normal food' when you get pregnant/get a child?' - well, no, I'm not, because why should I? I believe that being vegan is not only right from an ethical point of view, but also that it is healthy. There are numerous studies showing than plant based diet reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, certain cancers, obesity. Why shouldn't I want what I consider best for my children, as all parents do?
- 'but you are so poor' - certain people, including some vegans, actually believe that it is a huge sacrifice to adopt this way of living. They see us as martyrs choosing to suffer for the sake of animals. They feel sorry for us because we cannot eat all the good stuff. Well, who says we cannot eat whatever we want? If I feel like it, I can eat a pig, I can eat a cow, I can eat a chicken or any other animal. But I don't want to. So how is that a sacrifice, not doing what you don't feel like doing?
These are just some of the attitudes I have encountered when telling people I am vegan. At the beginning it did feel a bit strange, because in fact most people don't know what 'vegan' means. And I don't blame them for that, there are not that many vegans out there. Not yet ;) But I don't see that as a problem. As I said before, I believe we all should have a choice of how we live. I respect other people's choices, but if they ask me why I live the way I do, I will explain it to them. And if someone doesn't like it or doesn't approve of it, well, it's not really my problem, is it? Live and let live, that's the principle I wish we could apply to all living beings, people included, and the world would be a much nicer place.
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