I have been a vegetarian for seven years. There: I said it. I admit it. I am a vegetarian. A tofu eating, salad loving, yoga-doing vegetarian and I am happier for it.

At the start of my veggie life, I took to it with zeal, fervor, like people do religion; while it made me happier, I thought it may make other people happier, too. This was not the case. It played into every bad stereotype of people who follow my lifestyle, possibly because that was the only way I thought I could behave. Vegetarian crusades!

That ended pretty quickly. I was not pushy by nature and after time, my diet and lifestyle became a smaller part of my existence, taking cheese pizza instead of telling everyone else why I did the things I did.

Sometimes people asked me, though. I did and do have to gauge their question, wonder about their sincerity. Too many times I have been asked this by people who then turned around my words and mocked me for them, using false equivalencies and bad jokes to try and devalue something -- animals -- that always meant a great deal to me.

When I knew they were being sincere, I told them.

I am a vegetarian because I believe in expressing my own solidarity with the creatures of this earth, working in harmony with them to the greatest extent I can. I have nothing but love in my heart for the beings we share this earth with.

My choice is not your choice, but it is a choice nonetheless. It is valid and fair in the fact that I decided, of my own free will, to pursue this lifestyle. It is equally important to me in that it is was one of the first decisions I made of my own accord, something resembling adulthood. I was thirteen (just before Thanksgiving -- sorry, Mom) and it was a brave and admirable foray into adulthood.

In more recent years of veggie lifestyle, an attitude I have heard in increasing prevalence is that vegetarians are vegans who aren't trying hard enough.

I reject this on the grounds that it is ridiculous and fighting the wrong battles. I take my cheese and milk organic, which is a choice that comes with issues -- organic food is expensive and difficult for lower-income people to get, which suggests a great deal about the ideals of American society.

I am very happy in my life of rice and beans (very cheap, by the way.) I run three days a week, do yoga on my off days. I don't fight people's life choices. But I do try to exercise kindness and warmth wherever I go; my passion for animals is one of the warmest aspects of myself. I prize it and keep close.