All of my life I have known that I wanted to help people. For me, making others happy is the best feeling in the world and every single person who has ever "read" me or given me a sort of prediction for my life has told me that I am destined to be a humanitarian. I am designed to care for others.

Coincidentally, all of my life up until about two months ago, I have been neglecting the feelings, souls, and lives of every single animal that ever contributed to my omnivore diet in any way. I called myself a caring person, and I truly believed that, but now I see the flaws in my ways, and the only solution to this internal struggle I found when I made this realization was to go vegan.

The general response I got from friends and family when I made this lifestyle decision was along the lines of "I think it's amazing that you're doing this, I could just never do that for myself." This has always been the most confusing part of my sort of "coming out" as a vegan. Every person that I have ever spoken to about being vegan has the very same organs inside them as I do, we all have the same bodily functions, we are all human. So why do we as humans assume that making a switch from an omnivorous diet to a plant based one is so hard? Because we are raised - especially in the U.S. - to become addicted, dependent, and completely accustomed to the consumption of meat, dairy, and eggs. And the government, who receives unimaginable sums of money every day from the meat and dairy industry has no intention of stopping that; in fact, they want to increase it.

But when I tell you that animal agriculture alone is the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions globally, you feel this sense of guilt for about two seconds. When I mention that the leading cause of deforestation, namely in the Amazon rainforest, is animal agriculture, you spend another three seconds wondering if you're contributing to that. And when the subject of sustainable farming, fishing, and dairy and egg production is brought up and we conclude that there is absolutely no feasible way of farming sustainably, you look down, avoid eye contact, and try to justify your actions for 4 more seconds.

9 seconds of enlightenment on this topic is not enough. It's not enough to clear your conscience from the responsibility of the nearly 750 gallons of water you use per person per day by consuming meat and dairy. It's not enough to change your mind about eating meat when thinking of animal agriculture as the leading cause of species extinction period. And it's certainly not enough to save this planet from the foreseeable destruction we are headed towards if we as a species continue to consume these products at this scale.

You can not call yourself an environmentalist if you continue to ignore these facts and go about your life proceeding to contribute to these statistics. You cannot say you love animals, and the planet, and the ocean, and people, if you are a large factor in the destruction of the health of all of these things. You cannot play a part in the solution if you are part of the problem.

So when I first went vegan, yes, I was afraid to admit it to people. Would I be a burden to my family who now had to provide alternative options for most meals? Would people I know assume that I had gone crazy and lose respect for me due to my decision? Would I be like one of the stereotypical vegans who cannot go five minutes in any conversation without mentioning my lifestyle choice? But in the end the answers are irrelevant in relation to this one fact: I love helping the planet more than I love destroying it.

If you want to be a part of the solution please educate yourself with some or all of these resources:

Books: An Omnivore's Dilemma, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The China Study, Eat to Live

Documentaries: Earthlings, Cowspiracy, Fat Sick and Nearly Dead, Food Inc., Forks Over Knives, Vegucated, Speciesism, The Cove, Blackfish