I have worked at a chain steakhouse restaurant since April of 2013. I'm a waitress there, and when I started, I was not a vegetarian. I had grown up eating (and loving) chicken, fish, and red meat for my entire life, and I saw nothing wrong with the ways that it affected my body. So when people would ask me what my favorite thing on the menu was, I could easily pick out my favorite Parmesan covered chicken, grilled salmon, or wood fired steak - no problem. However, about four or five months ago, I completely cut meat out of my diet.

Most people assume that everyone eats meat, especially people who work in an industry that pushes the production and sale of it. It's kind of a shocking thing to hear from someone "Oh, I don't eat meat," especially if that someone is a waitress at a steakhouse. I'm never surprised when I say this to people and they ask me, "So how do you work here?"

I became a vegetarian mainly because I wanted to see what my life would be like if I tried it, but also because I have educated myself on the production of meat and what goes into the process of putting it on the shelves for society's consumption. The documentaries on Netflix about our food and all of the GMO's that are pumped into half of the stuff we buy at the store terrified me. There are movies and videos out there packed with footage of animal abuse that shows what truly happens to the animals that are slaughtered and packaged for popular meat selling companies. They disgusted me.

My best friend has been a vegetarian now for a couple years, and she hadn't seemed to have any major problems transitioning, so I figured I could do it too, especially after researching what goes into my food. I simply just stopped. I stopped ordering salmon for lunch on my breaks at work, stopped taking chicken tenders home for dinner, quit getting the meat lover's special pizza, and stopped looking at the steak section of the menu of other restaurants when I went out to eat. I didn't buy any meat whatsoever at the grocery store and instead filled up my cart with other sources of protein, such as beans, greens, lentils, nuts, and grains. When I went out with my friends, I just simply had to remind myself that where ever we stopped to eat, no matter how hungry I was, I would rather wait and make food at home if there were no vegetarian options readily available.

And absolutely nothing bad happened to me.

My body started to feel lighter, I quit bloating around the time of my menstrual cycle, I felt less tired and bogged down, and I just had more energy all around. Of course, I hear the constant "But WHERE do you get your protein?!" questions, to which I relay back the contents of my kitchen cabinets, but it's worth it. It's worth it to me because while I am taking care of my body in a way that I see fit for myself, I'm also educating people around me and cracking myths on what it means to not eat meat.

So yes, it is a little bit weird I suppose, to work at a place where you're handing out the exact thing you don't want to eat to complete strangers. But the way I look at it is, it's my choice. It's a way of life that I want for myself and I DON'T want to shove it down other people's throats. I work where I work to financially support my lifestyle while in college, not to use it as a way to berate people for eating meat. I did consider quitting at one point after I became vegetarian, but I didn't, because I love where I work even if I don't eat over half of the menu myself. My money isn't directly going towards the production of meat anymore, and that is what matters to me.

Yeah, I have to be a little more careful when it comes to what goes into my body. I religiously read labels like it's my second job, I ask tons of questions about the kinds of oils that foods are cooked in when I do order out, and I'm not ashamed.

I'm not bothering anyone. I'm just taking care of my body the way I want to.