This community is full of great information, thought I'd share some.

[plantyhamchuk]

This isn't really a pep talk per se, but many of the posts here are about how difficult it is to be vegan in a nonvegan world. Thought I'd share my experiences.

Comments

[mzflux]

Thank you for sharing this. I'm in my mid twenties and I just made the move from vegetarian to vegan. It's a challenge, but so far I'm really enjoying it. My parents like to tease me about it, but I'm holding up alright.

Vegan food = YUM

[katherinekeil]

God love ya for sharing. My experience has been much the same. It is a HUGE struggle for me not to preach and not to express frustration over deliberate ignorance ... I keep reminding myself of the veg*ans I knew growing up who NEVER preached to me, much less gave my dinners sidelong glances. Their tolerance of other folks' values was a huge part of my willingness to eliminate animal products from my own lifestyle.

[death_by_soy]

At the same time though, I remember being a teenager and knowing that some kids in the music "scene" I hung out in were vegan- but they never talked about why, so I didn't learn the reasons behind that choice for many years afterwards. I think people tend to treat it like a club or something- which leaves outsiders thinking that veganism is some weird spirituality thing (I always get the "why is it wrong to eat things that come from animals?" question) and they never learn about the cruelty involved in eggs and dairy.

[bitspike]

(I think I'm understanding that last part of your comment.)

The way I see it is that, if you have a non hostile attitude about your choices, then people are more likely to ask you about your reasons. If they are the ones who ask why it is so wrong to eat animal products, then there is nothing wrong with answering honestly. Of course, facts, statistics and personal opinions are probably a lot better than going overboard on graphic depictions of what goes in an attempt to disgust the other person. Well, in my opinion, anyway =)

[plantyhamchuk]

I did know some vegans when I went to college. They preached to me and made me feel like shit. I felt helpless, because I wanted to live humanely, but on the other hand, I didn't believe in myself enough to think that I could have the willpower to change my diet.

People are always going to make assumptions about the unknown. This is part of why I avoid the vegan label, for people tend to frame things about 'how do you live your life without XXXX' as opposed to saying how much I love things like fresh produce and living harmoniously with other life. One focuses on this concept of deprivation, the other is a celebration.

We all have different reasons for being here, and different ways for living in it - do what works best for you!

[hobochan]

Ahaha! When people find out I'm vegan and they ask why, I always stretch and say "Oh... because I can." When they press further I'll tell them I've always had the most fun in life when I'm the deviant. I love how you use 'deviant' just because I use it so much in my daily life. I'm always surprised by how a casual attitude makes them curious about being a vegan, though, and then they'll ask earnest questions.
When I was younger, I knew a girl who was vegetarian and very up-in-arms with people about it. Of course, they became hostile due to her hostility.
Now, I myself am vegan but easy-going, and when people get ready to cook their food (at work), they'll ask me if they should cook their food later, in case the smell of it makes me sick (it doesn't, but isn't that considerate!).
Nice attitudes beget nice responses.

[mindfulness]

Good attitude. :)

[bitspike]

I am in a similar situation where, by the time I went vegan, I was no longer a teenager and I had supportive people around me. I also feel that confrontation isn't, in most social cases, the best way to raise interest in animal rights issues. I wish other people here found the transition as easy as I (we) did

[plantyhamchuk]

If people ask me if I'm a dietary vegan, for the sake of simplicity I will state "no meat, no dairy", but that's really as far as I'll go. I've seen FAR too many battles within vegan communities about just what exactly constitutes a vegan - these battles serve, as far as I can tell, no one. It also saddens me when I see people beat themselves up because they weren't "vegan enough" or accidentally ate some animal product, etc. And while I will freely use the term omni (I've yet to encounter anyone offended by it), it's too easy to see the 'us' vs. 'them' mentality. To a certain extent it is a reflection of reality, but otoh I've seen some SERIOUS holier-than-thou animosity towards the omnis, which again, serves no one.

I'm not saying that you do any of these things, and I'm glad that the term works for you.

[monkey_goose]

I see what you mean about identity, and i can see how thinking about it that way might be empowering/freeing from battles about veganism between vegans. And i can definitely see how this might work on an individual level. However, i think using the term is useful. While there may be tension within the vegan community about what exactly constitutes a vegan, I think by using the term as part of your identity forms a kind of solidarity and gives validity to the movement to other people who are not vegan. Unfortunately people like to categorize and put everybody into boxes, and if we are not vegan then what do they call us? I'm not criticizing you, i think you have a very healthy and calm attitude towards the whole issue, but thats just the way i feel about it.

[locust_boy]

I don't mean to echo, but thanks for sharing this.

However, I think there's kind of a tightrope act involved. I don't want to aggressively preach to people, because that will cause nothing but anger and frustration. At the same time, I don't like the idea that if it's a personal choice I shouldn't be able to present my logic reasonably.

So when the topic comes up, I do engage it with people - I discuss how I feel about animal cruelty. But the stereotype of evangelist vegans is so widely believed that no matter how calm I am or how much I listen to what they have to say in return, people say that I'm shoving my opinions down their throats. I've had animal rights debates with my omni roomie, and we are still great friends; I don't see why people reject these kinds of discussions.

Anyway, that's just my soapbox, and it's evident that your method is working for you, so I might try it.