When I was 11 years old, I knew nothing about ethics. I had learned
growing up what to do and what not to do based mostly on what was best for me
mentally, emotionally, and physically. I didn’t see the importance of thinking of
others.I was also convinced that any time I failed to get what I want, I simply
hadn’t done enough to get it. I made a special effort to ensure
I was the most impressive student at all musical performances, for example.
However, in April of 2012, when I was 15, I made a decision that I believe has
significantly changed me personally and also my impact on the world: I decided
to become a vegetarian.
My choice to become a vegetarian was a moral issue for me.
Many choose the vegetarian lifestyle for personal health, but I began to see a
huge problem with the workings of the food industry, and today I am a
vegetarian to help put an end to starvation, global warming, and animal
cruelty.
Living as a vegetarian has changed the entire way I think.
Every action I take now first involves an analysis of the morality of the
choices I have, and this alone has made me a much happier person. Every-day
experience becomes a much easier thing to live with looking through a new lens
centered on preventing suffering rather than feeding the cravings of a
self-centered, wandering mind. People I used to find intolerably annoying now
do not evoke any negative emotions at all, for example, and at this point in my
life I can not think of any single person I dislike. I also used to blame my
problems on others, but now I realize that all of my emotions are the result of
my mind’s reaction to external conditions. I
owe this knowledge to my choice to become a vegetarian.
Becoming a vegetarian was the first active step I took over
the bridge of ignorance and selfishness and has paved the way for future moral
choices. I had seen plenty of evidence that slaughterhouses were atrociously
malicious and immoral institutions, and I had been learning that meat
production is nearly solely responsible for both global warming and global
starvation. However, I actively remained ignorant to protect my ego. Today,
vegetarianism is a matter of great importance to me. In my view there is no
finer protest against the suffering of the world and in science’s view no more impactful assistance to the
progress of humanity than the all-too-simple vegetarian lifestyle.
