VEGAN FOR GOOD

I have been vegan for almost a year now and I feel that it is time to explain my choices and my journey.

Enjoying vegan lemon sorbet at the beach

So my journey started back in 1994, when I was born. My parents were already vegetarians when I came into this world and they decided that, like my brother, they would raise me vegetarian. When I reached an age where I had a vague idea of what meat was and where it came from, my parents gave me the choice as to whether I wanted to try meat and I just couldn't understand why I would want to eat meat. At the time, I wanted to be a vet and save animals, I had no desire to ever eat an animal.

I have always loved animals and being around them, and I don't just mean your typical child who loves puppies and kittens. If you asked me at the age of 10 what my favourite animal was, I would reply with 'sharks' and would then go into detail about different types of sharks and their attributes; I was especially fascinated with hammerheads and tiger sharks.

As I grew up I continued to love animals and tried to support animal rights charities; this became a lot easier when I was in my teens and was able to use social media to raise awareness of animal cruelty.

When I was about 15, I was living in Cornwall and wanted to be the outcast of Bude (this tiny town where I lived), I met Nina, who very quickly became my best friend. We were two angsty, scene girls (and yes we were scene and VERY proud teehee) who stood out like sore thumbs in a town made up of surfers and 'normatrons'. It was amazing to meet someone who had quite radical beliefs and was just as opinionated as myself. Being a little scene kid I was obsessed with Bring Me The Horizon at the time and followed them all on various different social network sights; this was when I discovered that Jona Weinhofen, the band's guitarist, was a vegan. Jona had shared a video on Twitter and the footage showed what happened to chicks that are born to lay eggs and I was especially horrified to see that the male chicks were thrown, still alive, into a grinder. I then investigated into how dairy cows are kept and how they produce milk which again, was horrifying. I felt so naive; I couldn't believe that there were even more dark secrets to be uncovered about the food industry and the way it used animals. I immediately told my parents that I wanted to go vegan and they were surprisingly supportive. My best friend Nina also followed in my footsteps which gave people something else to taunt us about, not that it bothered us! 

I lasted as a vegan in Cornwall for 6 months; Nina had given up veganism and it was so hard to find any good food as we lived in a farming town which often held meat markets. There were no Holland and Barretts' and the local health food shop was so over-priced. I eventually had to give up being vegan but this led to a guilt that I didn't shift for a very long time. 

Sheep are friends not food or clothing

Up until last year I continued being vegetarian until once again, I came to the decision that I was going to attempt being vegan again. There was no specific moment where a lightbulb went off or anything like that, I was just being eaten up with guilt and although I knew that by being vegetarian I was doing something, it wasn't quite enough. 

By this point I was living in Essex and I have found vegan food much more accessible and half the price. I have met like minded people who have helped me along the way and have discovered that there is such a welcoming vegan/animal rights community in the Essex/London area; people have been a lot more supportive this time around. 

I have rambled on for quite a while so I will finish it up but, I feel so lucky now to be surrounded by people who are supportive of my decisions and are open to trying things themselves. Since turning vegan last year, I have known 8 people around me to also turn vegan which I think is so incredible. I don't think I could ever go back to being vegetarian; once you immerse yourself into the vegan world, you learn so much which makes it almost impossible to look at things the way you used to. I no longer look at a block of cheese or a pint of milk as food or drink, I now look at it as animal exploitation. 

I am determined to continue to fight for the rights of these animals and I will strive to be a voice for them.

If you are reading this and are not vegan or vegetarian, I just hope that you can come away from this with understanding; it is not impossible to be vegan. We are so lucky in this modern day to have plant based replacements for almost everything and it does taste good! I discovered the other day that after being vegetarian for 20 years, I have saved 4,040 animals, so who knows how many more I have saved by being vegan! 

I would love to hear your thoughts or journeys in the comments box!

 BB

For The Oceans