Being vegetarian brings up many questions

Vegetarian. To a lot of people, the word makes them look twice, especially if someone labels themself as being one. Once people know someone is a vegetarian, they have to know all the typical basics: how long the person has been a vegetarian, why they chose to be one, etc.

It's almost as if this diet choice somehow made the person somehow abnormal. And when someone forgets that a person is a vegetarian at a group function or anything that involves food, they seem to feel the need to apologize for it and make it a bigger deal than it actually is. After this, some people even feel the need to try to offer the person some “vegetarian food” like salads or something else that doesn't have meat in it, which is not always necessary.

I should know all of this because I have experienced all this myself. I have been a vegetarian for about seven years, since the beginning of my sophomore year in high school. No one forced me to do it, but no one tried to make me not be one at the same time. There is really no single good reason for this dietary change, it all sort of happened. I had been playing around with the idea for years. I would go through periods of time where I wouldn’t eat meat and then go back to eating it after a few months. Then one day, I decided to try not to eat meat again and it stuck with me ever since.

I have experienced being asked just about every question someone could possibly be asked about being a vegetarian: the basics, if I cared whether other people eat meat in front of me, if anyone else in my family was a vegetarian, whether I eat eggs and dairy products, the list goes on and on. It's an entertaining and awkward process to go through. It’s almost humorous to see how people react to the news, which is usually surprise or shock.

However, when all of the questions start up, it becomes very redundant. I have been asked the same questions probably 100 times in the past seven years and it just becomes almost irritating at times. It's just like ‘Didn't I just answer those questions?’ But people have to know everything there is about it, since not everyone is a self-proclaimed vegetarian.

The one thing that I think that people do need to know is that all vegetarians are not fanatics who swear off everything that is made from animal products or throw paint on people who wear leather coats or similar things like that. I am not a member of PETA and I honestly could care less if the people around me want to eat meat. In fact, I even own a leather couch.

I’ll be the first to admit that it sounds sort of strange. And it is. Not every person falls into a stereotypical role (and I happen to be one of them). In fact, very few people actually do. And just like any other group of people, there are fanatics who take their beliefs way too far and, in the long run, do more damage than good for what they believe in.

I am one of those people who understands that not eating meat is a choice that I have made for myself and for no one else. I can’t make people want to do things they don't want to do, no matter how much I wish they would. I know this because I am the only vegetarian in my family, with the exception of my uncle’s girlfriend, and she was one when my uncle started dating her.

I have had to become accustomed to not being able to eat the big main courses to most of the food offered at family gatherings like birthdays, Christmas or Thanksgiving. I have even dealt with meat, whether preparing it or cleaning it up, while working at a campus cafeteria in college. But even with all of this, I’m sure I have made people feel guilty about eating meat in front of me.

People should not be made to feel guilty about being a vegetarian or not being one, no matter their choice. There are things that one person may like to eat that another one abhors, whether it’s meat or something totally unrelated.

Jaclyn Gorski is a reporter for the Sidney Herald. She can be reached at 406-433-2403 | reporter@sidneyherald.com