Not Just a Phase

Hello, dear reader. On this weekend-eve, as we approach the edge of summer and the future of a thousand fond, warm (maybe too warm in New York) memories, we want to kick off a new feature that we hope will become somewhat of a regular one.

Yes, yes, I know. Usually on Fridays we pretend to be all "in the know," as the kids in the know say, telling you various Webby or New-Yorky things of interest...or, more often than not, we just want to get the hells out of the office, so we exercise the 5th. But lend us your electronic ear for a moment. We want to try this out.

So, we're attempting here to examine a piece that looks back at the stories of who we are and why. More specifically, we want to chronicle the choices we've made in our lives as they pertain to animals and vegetarianism and/or veganism. But in a fun, personal way. See, for many of us, the choice to stop eating animals is one that—whether we knew it or not at the time—began to sketch out the fine lines our lives have followed. It steered us in a direction that, often, led to who we now are as adults. It set a compass, so to speak, for choices to come—be them moral or health- or environmentally-minded.

With all of that in mind, we're kicking off what we're calling Not Just a Phase, where we ask friends, family, co-workers, and clients who happen to have chosen at whatever points in their lives to go vegetarian or vegan to tell us their stories. Though it's such a choice that affects so very much in the world, it's also one that's extremely intimate and intense. As many authors have written in the past, what we choose to eat is a wildly personal thing. And so, it follows that making such a significant choice often has an intriguing, affective story attached to it. A few weeks ago, we asked many people we know to be so kind as to tell us those stories. We've received a number of really moving stories already and hope to be able share many more in the future. For the time being, here's our friend Marisa's story.

The story goes, I refused to eat anything other than fruit and vegetable baby food, so even though my pediatrician said I was growing just fine, my mother started feeding me a concoction called a "milkie" that was frozen yogurt, whole milk, chocolate syrup and...a raw egg. Every day. I eventually succumbed to eating meat, but I remember that growing up—I always sort of hated food.

Fast forward to fifth grade where my best friend, Saba Syed, convinced me that eating pig meat was dirty. Then seventh grade where my friend, whose mom was a hippie, convinced me that "red" meat was bad for you. I had about two more years of a chicken-based diet when I went to visit my sister in Atlanta. A weekend's worth of southern fried chicken did me in. We ate at a Jamaican restaurant to mix things up, and I ordered my first ever veggie burger and OHMYGOD it changed my life. Then and there, I vowed never to eat meat again. I was 13 years old. At 15, I began a 6-year excursion into veganism, and while I've wandered back there now and again, I've never been strict about it since I graduated from college. But I haven't eaten meat in eighteen years! Told you it wasn't a phase! But the best part is I love food and cooking now that I know I don't have to eat dead bodies.

Marisa, Lawyer

Marisa contributes to this veg recipe blog from time to time and wanted to share it.

Above, Marisa way back when with a new pal at Farm Sanctuary in upstate NY.

If you'd like to share your story, we'd love to hear it. Make it as simple or as complicated, as heart-rending or as trivial as you want. But do please make it succinct. I mean, it's a blog, right? Visit our company's contact page or click here to send us an email if you'd like to share. Be sure to tell us your name, what you do (whatever that may mean to you), and give us any link you may have to your site or anything else you want. Send associated images you'd like too. We love photos. We'll be posting these in the order we receive them whenever possible, likely every Friday or so.

And have a great weekend!