“Veg Head” ~ A Triumphant Story of a Vegetarian
(Photo by: NJ…)
Today’s post was sent in by the awesome Caitlin! Thanks Caitlin! If you are interested in writing for GBD send in your stuff at contributor@girlsbydesign.com mmkay? Great!
By Caitlin
Starting at age 0, I’ve been a vegetarian. Until I began to understand the true meaning of vegetarianism around age 7, I never really thought much of it. In fact, it took me a long time to fully understand what being a vegetarian meant.
One of my clearest memories as a child was from when I was around 6 years old. I went over to my best friends house for a play date. For lunch we had ham and cheese sandwiches, which I thought nothing of at the time. When I came home my mom asked me what I had for lunch. When I told my mom what I had eaten, she realized that it was time to explain what being a vegetarian really meant. Up until that point, I never questioned why we would eat tofu instead of chicken for dinner, or why I always had to pack a lunch every day. That was just the way I lived, but then one day my mom opened my mind to so many incredible things.
As I grew older kids began to tease me. I was an easy target I suppose, I mean, who brings soymilk and tofu for lunch? I was always resentful of the children who had fruit roll ups, and ham and cheese for lunch. At lunch in elementary school it was typical for my friends and I to trade the goodies in our lunch. Sadly, no one ever wanted to trade with me. Kids would dangle meat in my face because they thought it was funny, or put meat on my tray whenever I wasn’t looking. As a young child I had little to no confidence so I never told them to stop. For years and years I had to deal with kids annoying me at lunchtime everyday. It was torture.
I always felt it was so unfair. I never asked to be a vegetarian. As if being a child isn’t hard enough, why would you intentionally add another hurdle? I secretly resented my mother as a child for choosing to raise me as a vegetarian. It took me close to sixteen years to realize how unique and lucky I am.
At age sixteen I’m finally okay with being a vegetarian. I don’t try to hide it. If I bring tofu for lunch I don’t hide it or eat it in the bathroom. Aside from the fact that I’ve become more confident, children are more mature and don’t nag me about it. I still have friends who annoy me about it sometimes, but for the most part my childhood trauma is said and done with.
In my English class I just finished righting an essay on animal testing and am not afraid to express how wrong I feel it is. I’m making it my mission to make up for all the years as a child that I hid in the shadows. I’m answering all the questions that I was too nervous to answer as a child.
Why am I a vegetarian? Plain and simple, I don’t feel that it’s right to kill animals. Can you just pick the pepperoni off of the pizza? No, It was touching the pizza, which is equally disturbing to me. How do you live off of only vegetables? Well, first of all, I consume more than only vegetables. Also, vegetables are a main source of the nutrients that our bodies need to survive. Tofu is so gross, how can you eat it? I get this question all the time, and half the people that have asked me that, have never even eaten tofu. That’s their opinion, I love the taste of tofu, eating it is quite easy. Put it in your mouth, chew and swallow!
I’m not writing this to offend anyone who has different opinions than I do. I’m just telling my side of the story, which needed to finally be told. Looking back, I find it still somewhat traumatizing, but I also find it interesting that I could have let something like that annoy me for years because I was too afraid to speak up.
. I loved it. 
rainbaby24
June 26, 2010I don’t see the big deal
I think it’s cool.
Nice Job!
~Cassie