For the past year I have been anxiously awaiting DC VegFest. For those of you who don't know, (and I expect most of you to not :P) VegFest is a vegan/vegetarian festival that happens in many major cities across the US. It has vendors and speakers all dedicated to educating and embracing this lifestyle. The event is FREE and a lot of the vendors offer free samples as well. Coming to the DC area for college, I knew I could expect a higher chance of a vegetarian friendly environment. DC has so many options, and this festival is just one of the best!
Check out this vegan 'Chikn' & Waffle Doughnut!
This entire year I completely prepared myself for going to the festival alone since there aren't too many other vegetarians or vegans at Marymount (that I know of at least). However, about a month ago my friend Katie said she wanted to come with me!! Then Katie invited her friend soon after that. (I was so excited that I would have people with me!!) I proceeded to go on an inviting-spree and I asked one of my friends in Admissions to come (and him and his brother made it out!) and I also asked my newly-vegetarian friend, Keisha! I was sooooo excited to have friends with me, regardless of all of them not being vegan/ vegetarian.
This guy is a cool thing called a Fruitarian! 90% of his diet is fruits, and he was very passionately explaining to us his love for fruits. When we asked for a picture he said 'Sure! Everyone grab their favorite fruit!'
Now, as you guys can see by my shirt... I'm just going to tell you why I am a vegetarian.
Some of you know, but I grew up with constant farm animals in and out of the back yard. (One time me and my sisters had rabbits in our bedroom!). Everything from goats, chickens, sheep, pigs, turkeys, rabbits, we even had a few geese at one point! The animals were primarily pets and/or 4-H project animals. However, every now and again we would have some animals sent to either the slaughter house or my Dad would slaughter them (primarily the poultry). Growing up it became normal to suddenly have the meat freezer in the basement full with a freshly slaughtered animal to last the fam a decent amount of time.
I have always been okay with family farms, or smaller farm bases that allow humane treatment of their meat animals. Factory farming is where I have an issue. Animals deserve to be treated humanely; whether its your family dog, or the chicken your family plans to have for dinner. No animal deserves to be fed extra hormones to grow 4x the size its legs can hold, just so it can be slaughtered in half the time of its usual development... even if it's because it makes the 'farm' more money. Obviously, I'm very passionate about this topic (basically I could go on for hours, so to spare you all... check out Food Inc., Vegucated, Forks Over Knives, Farmaggedon, basically any documentary about dietary issues or factory farming).
On March 15, 2009 I decided to completely change my health by turning into a vegetarian. I had recently watched Vegucated online and decided to go vegetarian for 30 days to start out. The switch wasn't too difficult for eating because I didn't really like most meat to begin with. However, it was really really really hard for me mentally because my whole family questioned my motives and they definitely would try to bribe me back to eating meat. I stuck with it though. After the 30 days I felt fabulous physically, I had more energy (this was also during basketball season), my skin was clearer, and I just wanted to keep going. Now, 5 and a half years later, I'm proud to say I plan on remaining a vegetarian for many years to come.
Aside from my ranting about vegetarianism... look at this adorable Tee with this outfit? I matched it with my fav pink polka dotted pants (see this post), a jean jacket, and some ballet flats. Very basic, but I wanted people to see the shirt more than anything. :-)
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