The Hardest Part About Being Vegan

For anyone who isn't yet Vegan,

it can seem like an unnattainable lifestyle

We've been raised to eat animals and most of us become addicted to their taste

When an action has been repeatedly normalised, it can feel impossible changing to something else

But being Vegan in itself is easy

Veganism is just about not exploiting and consuming animals

After a few weeks of experimenting with new foods and products, new habits form and it becomes effortless

We discover new tastes and recipes we hadn't tried before, find Vegan versions of our favourite meals

and most of the time we find a whole new appreciation for food and nutrition and love it more than we ever had before

The real difficulty in being Vegan doesn't involve food

The hardest part about being Vegan is coming face to face with a darker side of humanity

and trying to remain hopeful

It's trying to understand why otherwise good and caring people continue to participate in needless violence against animals

just for the sake of their pleasure or convenience

When you first discover Veganism, you have to deal with the fact that you've been lied to most of your life

You have to accept that as you were growing up, the people you thought you could trust, stole your compassion

and taught you that it was okay to harm others

They corrupted your mind without you realising and gave you justifications to stop you from thinking about it

And you have to realise that the adverts that made you smile and laugh were just tricking you into giving the money for products

that make you sick and destroy the planet

You have to deal with the fact that they used happy cartoons and loving slogans to sell tortured, slaughtered animals

And you fell for it

And when you start to realise this, you naively think that you've discovered a secret that the world needs to hear

so you do everything you can to share the new truths you've learned

You tell everyone you know about Veganism

hoping they'll understand and change like you did when you made the connection

But they don't

They give you excuses that don't make sense and refuse to listen to reason

You find your family and closest friends defending animal abuse because they're too scared to change

And you don't know how to react to their indifference

You're trying to help them and help innocent animals but they accuse you of attacking them

and become defensive everytime you talk about Veganism

You have arguments and start to lose respect for those you love the most

And you become isolated

You can't stop thinking about the images of animals being queued up to be systematically slaughtered

You feel so powerless and just wish people would listen

And at the same time the people around you start to mock you and ridicule you for being different

They make insensitive jokes and you do your best to see the funny side of what they're saying

then come home and realise that they were laughing about animal abuse as if it was acceptable

It's been said that enlightenment is bittersweet

because in one hand it is wonderful to know the truth, live the truth and share the truth

But it is also maddening to realise how cruel and ignorant our species can be

But that's not a reason to shy away from doing what's right

All throughout time the ones on the right side of justice have always faced resistance

But it's always been worth it

Becuase what is the hardest part about being Vegan is also the most rewarding part

The longer you're Vegan, you find better ways of explaining to others and sooner or later someone will listen

And more people will open up and listen to what you have to say

And people you thought you'd never get through to will thank you for changing their life

The seeds you planted from the beginning will start to grow and you'll understand the importance of patience and persistance

You find other Vegans and learn to love humanity again

realising that there are good people out there

But through the process of letting go you welcome so many beautiful people into your life who share more in common with you

And as hard as it is to move on from the past,

you become happier in the long run

And it gives you a reason to get up everday

It's no longer just about you

Veganism teaches you to look beyond yourself and think about others

And through your activism you learn to never apologise for speaking up

Because if you're right and you know it,

you have to speak up

Even if you're just one person against the whole world, the truth is still the truth

Exposing the lies and injustice becomes your purpose

And you become such a shining version of yourself that you inspire others arouund you without even trying

You inspire compassion through your fearlessness and uncompromising passion to make the world less selfish

And the best lesson you'll ever learn is that life's not about feeling amazing all the time

It's about accepting the pain and fear

And doing something anyway

not because you want to

but because you have to

There's so much evil on this planet

But that shouldn't make us sad

It should make us desperate to help

”Because this is not some mundane diet choice

This is the difference between enslavement and freedom

Between torture and peace

Between death and life

This is serious

And you understand it and you are part of this revolution ”

”The people that think Veganism is hard are thinking about themselves

And the people that think Veganism is easy are thinking about the animals

So if you think it's hard to not eat meat, think how hard it is for them that you do eat meat”