Tell me if you have heard this one: "You eat plants; plants have feelings too. How do they feel being ripped out of the earth? I bet they scream." Or have you been told this: "Animals are below us; they are meant to be eaten. If they were not, they wouldn't be lower then us on the food chain."
It's difficult, isn't it? Being vexed when telling your peers your philosophy of animal activism. It is hard to find others in high school who have the same viewpoints on vegetarianism and environmental matters. Most high schoolers are happy to chomp down a McDonald's Big Mac, Super Size French fries, and let's not forget the strawberry milkshake. Don't worry--there are plenty of people out of all the pettiness of high school who care about things other then shopping at The Gap and grinding a rail on Tony Hawke's skateboarding video on Playstation. The question is when are you going to meet those people and can you survive the cafeteria at school that does not provide a vegetarian alternative? Everyone goes through difficulties and everyone has to pay for their viewpoints, if ethics were easy everyone would be ethical. What can you do right now to feel happy about your vegetarianism and gain some respect?
First off, you are not going to change the minds of the sophomoric kids at your school. You just have to deal with it and find other means to express your outrage at eating meat.
- Join the school newspaper and write articles of humanitarian and animal rights. Schools always want diversity in the school newspaper, and I am sure if you reason with your school's newspaper sponsor they would let your write an article for the paper.
- Start writing letters to companies that test on animals. You can get information about companies that perform these tests at www.Peta.org. Writing letters really lets off some steam, and it is fun to get letters back from companies trying to justify their ignorance. Make sure to brush up on your letter writing etiquette though!
- Start a club at school for vegetarians. I bet there are more vegetarians at your school then you think, and who knows, maybe you can actually change some unfair school food policies.
- Or if none of these things work, join a student activist network through the Internet. You can talk to people about your concerns and hopes for animal activism. PETA has a great student activist network.
But no matter what you do don't give up your beliefs because of some mockery of your views at school or having apathetic kids who don't understand. There are many, many ways to change the world out there-even a teenager can help. All you have to do is to stick by your values and you will go far.
--Ava is a sophomore in high school and has been vegetarian for six years, vegan for six months.
