Every time someone finds out that I’m a vegetarian the first thing they ask me is, “Why?” It’s a fair question. Especially since I’ve been a vegetarian since I was 14 years old (almost 16 years 😱).
The main reasons people become vegetarians are either for health reasons or for animal rights. My reason is both! Not really for “health” reasons given that I was only 14 when I decided to become a vegetarian, but I just wasn’t a big “meat eater.” It was like I only ate one meal from each source of protein. I only ate spicy chicken sandwiches, I only ate hamburgers, only ate crab, and only ate bacon. Since I was so picky, my meat intake was very limited.
The next reason is that I have always been a big animal lover and when I was younger I forced myself to watch videos on how they kill animals. Let me tell you something, watching those videos will turn your stomach and that was all it took for me to cut out certain types of meat like pork and beef. Chicken was the last (and hardest) to remove from my diet. So I did exactly what I had done with beef and pork and went to YouTube. I’ll spare you the graphic details but trust me it’s so disgusting and those videos will also make you stop eating meat.
I think the biggest reason I decided to stick with it though was when—at the proud age of 14—told my parents I wanted to be a vegetarian. And they laughed at me and said, “good luck.” So I did what every teenage girl did—I rebelled and proved them wrong that I could and would become a vegetarian. So take that mom and dad! 😂
And that’s my story! It was a hard journey at first because you don’t realize how many animal products are in everyday foods. And I was doing it all by myself. I honestly can’t believe I made this huge life decision at such a young age, but here we are going on 16 years. I hope it’s something that will last me a lifetime because it’s one small victory for animal life everywhere! ❤️
Click here to read: “Things Vegetarians Hate Hearing”
xoxo, Michele
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