Vegetarian: Learning and why I became

We were just finishing reading Johnathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal," when my teach, Ms. Davidoff, had inquired our thoughts about his story. Most of us was grotesqued, the thought of consuming small children to stop starvation and overpopulation was positively insane! And most, if not all, found the story more disturbing than amusing. My teacher, she listened, nodded a few, and when everyones thoughts were done being vocalized, she looked to the class with his gleeming glasses and somewhat unsettling face;

"That is how I feel about eating animals. Eating animals to me, is as disgusting as eating babies."

I had knew she was the head of that ASPCA club at our school, but I did not know she was a vegetarian. When she spoke further on the analogy, I felt it was best that I stayed away from meat.

I always thought I was an animal lover, and I've even attested to a few PETA videos, but I never took them seriously because I was in denial and I thought they were exaggerated. But it seems, a lot of animals suffer unnecessarily to satisfy our taste buds.

I was asshamed at what I done, and my journey to vegetarianism begain that March of 2009.

When I went home that day I tediously plucked every strand of chicken I saw inside my rice and chicken soup. I did not know that it was still unvegetarian-like to eat what was left, but I tried my hardest to cleanse my body of the evil I once done.

Once I understood that was not vegetarian, I messed up once again for assuming the ignorance of fish begin, well, vegetarian.

Vegeta- is a root word for a reason.

I fried my fish in the same oils that my family fried they meats. And I continued to eat fish for nearly a month and a half to two months before I realized that fish was not vegetarian.

In this phase, I transitioned into a deeper vegetarian.

I did not cook my foods in the same oils that meat cooked in, and I did not eat fish. I began reading and understanding ingredients, but I did not know all the terms like 'mono-diglycerides' because it wasn't, well, blatant.

Chicken Stock, and other simple terms is what I had looked for. It took several more months before I understood how thorough I had to really be. I can say, that the last seven or so months I've been a lot more aware of the things I have been putting in my body.

I know what I am eating pretty much in and out, and I read the ingredients of everything.

I have been without meat (excluding fish) for a year, and vegetarian for 10 months. I am very happy with the change, and as I type this I am coincedentally wearing a shirt that states "Kiss me I'm a Vegetarian."

I feel healthier, and I feel happier. I know that animals are not dying because I want their flesh.

And a link to the story my teacher analogy'd from is http://art-bin.com/art/omodest.html