Vegan Journey

Sitting and thinking of my vegan journey, I think of the adventure I started on when I was 11 years old. My mother didn’t know what to feed a new vegan in the early 80’s so she struck a bargain with me as I started to waste away. She asked that I eat chicken and fish. I reluctantly agreed as I was starving in my bedroom that day.  My truth was wavering and I didn’t yet have the strength and knowledge to stand up for myself.  I continued to eat the way of the excuse-atarian for 22 years.  Until one day I buzzed through a fast food drive-up and got a chicken sandwich – I took it out of the bun and looked at it. It made me gag.  I became a lacto-ovo vegetarian that day. “Don’t worry,” I told my omni husband, “I’m not going vegan.” Apparently I was, I couldn’t make the excuses anymore. I had been a vegan all-along, I was just blocked.

Even though I’ve now been a vegan for 3 ½ years I feel like I’m learning every day. I still have amazingly huge struggles and hurdles. My husband is an ‘open’ omni and it is a less than ideal situation in our home with two daughters but we make it work. We have decided not to push our girls in either direction. But I do not prepare any non-vegan dishes in our home. If my husband wants meat he cooks it himself. It’s up to the girls if they want to eat the flesh. But I do find myself falling back on the excuse-atarian habits of making exceptions for certain meats. No to pepperoni and hot dogs but turkey is all right? No ham or duck but salmon is ok? This plagues me daily.

Last week in a visit to Portland we took a side trip to visit the vegan mini mall. My 7 y.o. decided to buy a t-shirt that said ‘I’m Vegan and I Love You” – She wore it out the door but I gently pulled her aside and mentioned while wearing that shirt she can only eat vegan. She wore the shirt for two days and got many more smiles and comments than negative reactions. Bailey glowed and upon our arrival back to Colorado she continued her proclamation of being vegan. A few days later she told her grandmother that she was now a vegetarian. In a harried response my mother-in-law told her that ‘you’re too young to be a vegetarian.” Later that morning, after being served a giant dish of yogurt Bailey politely pushed it aside, slipped into the other room and told me what grandma said. She said that it made her “really sad.” We talked about what different people believe and that ultimately grandma doesn’t understand what it means to be a vegan. I also mentioned that although she really cares about you, she doesn’t understand. Her confidence was shaken and I just try and support her decisions by answering questions.

I’ve done my best to accept the fact that the support I thought was there was actually not.  It is thought that being vegan is just part of my quirky personality. I am humored.  Let them think that but simply ‘being the vegan in the room’ has made my family and friends think about what it means to eat or not eat animals.

I know my eldest will be a vegan someday; it will be a long journey in a non-vegan family and world. It is my job as a mother to instill the truth in my girls. I hope that they run with that truth and spread the love.