By Anne Custer<\/p>\n
Shortly after my transition into veganism, I was eating lunch with some
\ngirls from my English class. Unexpectedly, one of them turned to me and
\nsaid, \u201cYou know you aren\u2019t going to change anything right?\u201d The uncalled
\nfor comment made my head spin, but as a meek high schooler, I just
\nsighed to myself and went back to eating my hummus.<\/p>\n
Now that I\u2019ve had a tad more life experience (2 years) I can say that I
\nfeel bad for that girl. She has little to no belief in herself or her
\ncapability to enact social change as a human being. I know I will not
\nconvert everyone I meet to being\/becoming a vegan, but knowing that I
\nam not contributing to the cruelty and suffering animals endure for
\nunnecessary means is enough for me. Animals are innocent creatures and
\nwe tirelessly abuse them for food, clothing, and entertainment, which
\nare all things we can and should get elsewhere. They don\u2019t have a voice
\nto speak out to the cruelty being done against them, so someone has to
\nadvocate for them.<\/p>\n
My feeling is if everyone thought they couldn\u2019t change anything, nothing
\nwould ever get done. If you aren\u2019t passionate or you don\u2019t care about
\nanything, then you likely aren\u2019t going to go out of your way to change
\nsomething. Too many things need changing in this world for anyone to be
\nan apathetic bystander. If I could go back to that moment, I would say,
\n\u201cNo, I don\u2019t know that I am not going to change anything, because I am.\u201d
\nThe way she phrased the question was almost a trap for me to fall into.
\nShe didn\u2019t give me the option to say what I was doing to make change or
\nexplain myself. She put that lie into my head that I wasn\u2019t capable of
\nchanging anything. It left me feeling defeated, but then I did some
\nresearch. Raising livestock is one of the leading contributors to global
\nwarming. By not eating meat for five years, I have reduced my carbon
\nfootprint and expanded my knowledge about the environment and respect
\nfor our Earth. I have spared countless animals from being consumed,
\nbecome more aware about animal rights, and even inspired people to give
\nveganism a try.<\/p>\n
My passion for justice for humans and animals drives me to be an
\nadvocate and desire to see and enact change. One of my favorite quotes
\nsays, \u201cI alone cannot change the world but I can cast a stone across the
\nwaters to create many ripples.\u201d Don\u2019t let small-minded, apathetic people
\nsteal your passion; find something you care about and run with it. Find
\npeople that are fighting the same fight and do something! Don\u2019t be
\nafraid to talk to others about it either. Your efforts could just be the
\nstone that sets off a chain reaction.<\/p>\n