I have always loved animals, and I remember being a child and asking about how animals were killed in slaughterhouses. I remember my father told me that they were killed instantly, so they didn't suffer and I didn't have to worry about that. Actually, everybody had always made me think that eating meat was a necessity. So, I never thought in becoming a vegetarian. I guess that when I heard about vegetarianism I thought about people who wanted to slim down or something like that. Anyway I was a sensitive child and once I began to think that the egg yolk was the blood of the future chick, so I couldn't eat fried eggs, because the liquid yolk made me think that I was eating blood.
This is just an anecdote, but I didn't become a vegetarian until I was almost 21 years old. I was doing an exchange in Belgium. For the first time in my live I was living alone and cooking everyday for myself. I realized that I didn't buy so much meat, and when I did, it was quite disgusting for me to have to cook it. When I saw the raw meat in the fridge I felt disgust. But it wasn't until I saw a poster in the wall of the university that I began to connect the fact of being vegetarian to the fact of loving or respecting animals. In the poster you could see a death cow on one side, with a sad emoticon, and some fruits in the other side with a smile face, and you could read on it: vegetarian! What I thought when I saw it was: they are right, it is so sad.
However I didn't became a vegetarian until some weeks later when by chance I meet the girl who had stuck the poster I saw. She explained to me that she was an animal rights activist and that she was a vegetarian. It was then when I finally did the connection and I decided to try a vegetarian diet. The same day I decided to change my diet I saw Earthlings, a documentary where the reality of animals is exposed, and then I knew I will always be vegetarian.
At the beginning it was difficult for my family and friends to understand it, and for me to feel confortable in the family dinners, but finally they get used and me too. Now my mother and my sisters eat much less meat than before, and I hope some day they will take the decision of being vegetarian and respecting the other animals. My boyfriend wasn't a vegetarian when I met him, but I show him why I was a vegetarian and he decided to have a vegetarian diet
PS. If every one of us inspired ONE person to go meatless imagine the difference we could make in ten years time. I am going to collect inspirational vegetarian/vegan stories to share with everyone. If you think your story will inspire others, please share with me by sending it to info@veglov.com. I will post your stories on this www.veglov.com blog. I believe everyone has his/her own story, I think it must be great when we can share our stories and inspire others. Let’s make the world a better place. ~ Xiao Kang.
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