The Bubble That is College

I am sitting in my room on my day off from work today, bored. I didn't have this problem last year when I was in college. I had so much work I didn't have time to be bored. It was a good thing. I didn't have to worry about what to do with my life; all I had to do was focus on getting my assignments done. Now I am stuck in a vast unknown. I don't know what to do in the next five minutes or the next five years. There is no one telling me "Do This!" and I probably wouldn't listen if there was. College insulated me from the real world and if it did that to me it probably has done that to others. I found myself in my last year of college not knowing what my next move should be. I decided not to go blindly to graduate school with no real direction and so I ended up here. Living with my parents, working a job I could have gotten out of high school. College was originally meant to be, I suppose, training for a specific career. I treated college as a playground. A place where I could dabble in interesting subjects with no concrete plans of what to do with my education. I guess if I had thought more about my future maybe I could have prevented this year. I don't know but I like to believe things happen for a reason and maybe there is a reason I had to go through this.

Veganism: "It's SO Easy"...um, Not so Much

In the past year or so, I've been toying with the idea of veganism. I mean if you're a vegetarian for the animals (which I am) it just makes sense. Dairy cows and chickens suffer just as much, if not more, than animals raised solely for their flesh (just google it if you don't believe me). Besides the fact, in the end, they, too, are slaughtered for their meat. Anyway, so I knew it made sense for me to go vegan, but putting it into practice was another matter. Animal products are in EVERYTHING, so unless I wanted to make all my food from scratch, (yeah right!) it was gonna be hard. I ended up trying vegan foods but still remaining a lacto-ova vegetarian. I went on like this until August, when I finally got the push I needed to take the plunge into veganism. I visited Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, New York and it was absolutely amazing. I was there for a two day conference and I got fed all vegan food. I saw it was possible to eat vegan and knew it was time I gave it my all. When I went back I gave up dairy and eggs, just like that. And you know what, it was easier than I thought it would be. Maybe it was because I was so convinced veganism was the right choice (for me, for the animals, for the world). Flash forward to November and I come across this blog article. http://voraciouseats.com/2010/11/19/a-vegan-no-more/ I shrugged it off at first, but then I actually read it and what she said seemed sincere. What if she was right and veganism was not only bad for my body, but not saving any animals? I was deeply disturbed. Being unsure of my beliefs led me to apathy. I started eating non-vegan foods here and there. They do taste good and I no longer had the firm background I had before to refuse them. I guess this gets me now to the title of my post. Being vegan isn't easy. I read on so many animal rights websites that it's so simple to be vegan but it's not. I don't say this to put down veganism (I'm actually for it), I just think we should be honest about what it is. To be vegan you really have to be committed; non-vegan food is everywhere. Also, I find it much harder to see the connection between animal suffering and a piece of cheese than between animal suffering and a piece of flesh. I'm not the only one who feels this way. I remember in Melanie Joy's book, Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows, she found that vegans were disgusted when meat touched their food but not when dairy or eggs did. I live in a small town, so vegan options just aren't out there that much. Being vegan means saying no to food a lot, which can be tough. I think it's easier to be vegan if you live in a city where there are more options available but I still don't think it's a piece of cake.

Better, but still...

Right now I'm working at Chipotle. They serve what they claim is humanely raised meat. I found out from my general manager that one of their meat suppliers is Niman Ranch, so I googled the place and this is what I found.

I must admit the pigs do seem to be living pretty good lives. Still, the whole thing doesn't sit right with me. Yes, it's better than factory farming, but those pigs are going to ultimately be killed. Maybe humane farming is the best we can realistically hope for in terms of animal rights. People don't seem too eager to give up their meat. I just don't like the idea of an animal being slaughtered for my meal.

Welcome to Blogging

My name is Jessie and I have never had a blog before, so please be kind. I like writing and think I have a knack for it so thought I'd start a blog to get myself motivated to write. Okay, now I want to explain the name of my blog. I just graduated college, but am currently working a minimum wage job--there's the obvious connection. I also want to use this blog to explore going beyond the bare minimum and in my mind the bare minimum is following the status quo. One topic I am particularly interested in is animal rights. The status quo tells us to eat meat and dairy and never question it. The status quo also tells us to choose a career, to know what we're going to do with our lives. I'm still searching and refuse to just pick a career as if it was like choosing a name from a hat. So I plan to post on all of the above and whatever else interests me. I will post something new (and hopefully a bit longer) by next week.