After a Chik-fi-la chicken biscuit I ate yesterday because I nearly passed out after getting a shot at the doctor’s office, I have locked in my diet. This morning, my parents, my sister and I went to a the Woodside Deli in Silver Spring for breakfast, and after looking at the menu, I had an "Arrested Development" moment.

Panicking, I scanned my options and realized that everything I wanted to order had some type of animal product in it. My mom suggested that I ask the waitress about any vegan options, to which I replied “Why would I want to be that person?”, to which she replied, “You’re going to have to be that person if you want to eat.” Fair enough.

When the waitress came to take our orders, I succeeded in saying the most pretentious thing I have ever said, including “I do yoga” and “I went to private school”.

“Do you have any vegan options?” I said. The waitress responded with very helpful suggestions and I ended up ordering a plate of falafel and pita with humus and a side of salad with vinaigrette. She continued to ask about my diet and I told her about my writing and she even recommended a vegan bakery in Columbia Heights called “Sticky Fingers”. Her name was Kimberley, and she was a great help. Thanks, Kimmy-Kim (Is it okay if I call you that? I feel like we’re buds now).

Here are some other things that I might as well have said, according to the typical vegan stereotype

“Excuse me, how many animals does this restaurant kill on a daily basis?”

“Excuse me, are you aware that you’re a dirty rotten murderer?”

and while pulling out a tea-cup pig,

“Hi, this is Babe, how would you like to slaughter him for your own satisfaction?”

The stereotype of the vegan is not a positive one. There’s a joke that goes something like, “How do you know when someone’s a vegan? Don’t worry they’ll tell you”. Classic comedy. Of course, every group of people have extremists, and while I have had the pleasure of knowing some great and welcoming people who don’t eat animal products, I have also had the displeasure of viewing the “scare-tactics” that pro-vegan media advertises. Videos of cows and chickens being slaughtered, Youtube “Health-Gurus” who only eat bananas and who claim that veganism is the only way of life. I have only been whole-heartedly vegan for less than a day and I’m already struggling, so of course I have a lot of respect for people that live this lifestyle, but I have no respect or tolerance for shaming somebody else’s way of life. Fear is not the only means of education.

That’s why I am challenging myself with this lifestyle for several months: to break the stigma that one way of life is the only way of life. Where I am now, I predict that this lifestyle with be extremely difficult for me because I am already a busy college student, but there are also people who fit this lifestyle because they have the time and the commitment to be the people who are constantly asking “Do you have any vegan options?”

"Excuse me, I'm a Vegan"