Why I Chose Veganism and How It Changed My Life

When trying to think about discourse communities I was apart of, I had never realized how many specific communities that I personally fit in. But at the same time, I wasn’t sure of the criteria needed to fit into these communities and be “accepted”. I then learned it was a community of people that shared common interests, goals in life, and ways of communication. From this I was able to quickly identify with a community I strongly identified and was highly involved with. This one specific community I will discuss about today is the veganism community. I personally entered this community by learning the truths behind thecruelty of factory farming, environmental impacts, and health aspects of animal products. I gained knowledge behind this community by researching and exposing myself to the truth, leading me to be successful in joining the community.

I can still vividly remember the way I felt when I was first exposed to the world of veganism. I had stumbled upon a youtube video titled “Best Speech You Will Ever Hear - by Gary Yourofsky”, who is an American animal rights activist. This was the first time I had ever seen a video or documentary on this topic. I remember listening to his speech and it sending chills down my body. This set off a big trigger in me. I felt as though I had been lied to my entire life, like there was this whole hidden cruel industry that supposedly nobody knew about or talked about. I was exposed to the truth and things I had never even imagined about before. I also experienced this when watching documentaries like “Cowspiracy”, and video clips of factory farm conditions. I remember watching these videos for the first time and seeing the cruelty and abuse that they face. I saw animals on factory farms crammed and trapped in sheds that had no windows, no fresh air, where they would never see the light of day or green grass for months at a time, or even at all in their short lifetime. Stuck in cages and pens so small they can’t even move around, where they ended up just sitting and laying in their own feces and urine just waiting to be slaughtered, only if they didn’t end up dying from disease and infection beforehand. The conditions they are put through were absolutely shocking to me; the suffering these poor innocent animals go through is unreal. It truly just makes me sick to my stomach. I couldn’t believe that this was going on.

Why weren’t more people talking and fighting against the conditions that they go through, how is this allowed, and why is it still happening to this day? After viewing these documentaries and videos it was definitely the point I truly realized I needed to change my lifestyle and diet. I could even call it my awakening in life, like it was my purpose in life to change. In the vegan community, we all have somewhat common goals, whether it be to prevent and end the abuse of factory farm animals, living a healthier lifestyle, reducing our environmental impact on this earth, or all of the above. We share the goals of wanting to make veganism more mainstream and accessible to people, educating others on how to live a more ethical lifestyle, and fighting for animal rights. For the most part, we all just want to raise awareness about the unjust and cruel treatment of factory animals. Veganism is a whole community on its own, but there are many other separate stem communities that come from it. There’s the hardcore activist vegans, raw vegans, online social media vegans, etc. This passion we all have in common and share in this community is what makes communication so easy. We can all relate to one another in this way. There's many different ways us vegans have ways of communicating with one another. The way I personally use and am most involved with is the online social media presence of the community, specifically on Twitter and Youtube. This is where we are all able to share personal opinions, recipes, and raise awareness about veganism. Other forms of communication widely used amongst the community include blogs, facebook, meetups like vegan festivals hosted in cities, and even through documentaries. I believe the best way of communication for people who are looking into joining or being exposed to the community, is through documentaries. They are filled with knowledgeable facts and real life stories.

I have personally been vegan for almost 2 years, and I can say myself how much of an impact changing has done to me. I can truly say it changed my life for the better. When changing my way of eating, I noticed positive differences in my mood, skin, body, and overall health. When I had first made this change, I didn’t understand why more people didn’t change their diets to plant based. Out of all the research out there it seemed like the “miracle diet”. Why weren’t more people changing? The vegan diet had been linked to preventing many different types of diseases like heart disease, certain types of cancers, type II diabetes, etc. But I then learned there were many people out there who were trying to disprove the vegan lifestyle and make up lies about it. For example, we are all B12 and protein deficient, or we aren’t getting all the nutrients that we need, which simply is not true. You can get all of the nutrients you need on a plant based diet, but people just don’t want to accept that, they try to deny the power of plants. I know personally I have experienced and come into contact with many naysayers. I have dealt with their negativity and disapproval towards my vegan lifestyle.I have learned to not argue about my lifestyle with them, but to simply live my lifestyle and use the positive changes in me as my argument against them.

My experience is real life living proof against them, and I am able to prove them wrong. I would get told all the time that I would not be able to stick with the lifestyle and stay fully involved within this community, but this just ended up giving me more motivation and determination to stick with it. I have gotten so far now, I was able to disprove them and stick with my discourse community. Being involved within the vegan discourse community has helped me grow and learn so much as an individual. Having others who are similar to you that you can relate to is very comforting to have. In the end we just all want to get people thinking, and exposed to the truths. We are always looking to grow and improve our community which we see happening every single day. We have the power to change people's minds and get them to open up to our community, regardless of any stereotypes that they have of us or untrue ideas that they’ve been told about veganism. We all have the power to make a big difference.