The Story of the Lonely Vegetarian

From a very early age we are all taught that eating meat is the "American Way", not that our culture is alone in meat at the center of every meal. I too was a solid branch on the carnivorous tree of American Values up until the age of 13. Eating meat at almost every meal and cried in desperation when my mom tried to deny me my "ribs or steak tips".

Everything changed one day after a earnestly worked for presentation day in freshman year civics class where I went forth to rebelliously persuade my class peers that vegetarianism was the only way, that the shameful killing of animals for our consumption was wrong, and let me count the ways.

Well I am now 31, and have never looked back (at least not until now). I am not a pure vegetarian, in that I occasionally indulge in fish when out to eat at a restaurant. But on the other hand, I am borderline vegan at home (eating nothing that comes from an animal). I often think about how that fateful choice at the tender age of 13 has impacted almost every aspect of my life. It has profoundly changed the way I operate in the world, and has made me an outsider of sorts.

I want to bring together other vegetarians of every sort, no parsing apart of if you eat a scallop here or a shrimp there. I welcome everyone, who has consciously decided to to eliminate meat from their diet to come here and share/comment their personal experiences on a range of topics that relate to their experience in a culture that was built on and around a solid diet of meat. Are you an outsider? Well welcome inside, the tofu is getting cold.