Well, I've butchered this blog post...

I have a confession to make. For those of you who know me well, I probably have broken it to you before... My name is Jessica, and I'm a vegetarian. Even though I've been one for many years, I've been wondering recently, what's the big deal about it? When I meet someone new, I can almost guarantee that when my dietary habits come up in conversation (which, surprisingly, doesn't usually take very long), there's shock and disbelief, questions, and at least ten minutes of quite pointless conversation...'Do you not eat meat because you don't like it or because you don't like the idea of killing animals?'... 'what do you eat then?'... 'what about eggs?'.
All I'm trying to say really, is that I don't understand what all the fuss is about. If someone doesn't particularly like rice, or potato, or any type of food, it isn't a big deal. But it is when it comes to being vegetarian, people just don't always seem to understand.
It's a little embarrassing, too, when people seem to over-cater and get a little too excited. For instance, if I were to visit someone's house, it would seem that my awkward lifestyle choice is such an enormous challenge...'what to cook for a vegetarian!?'. There's always a lot of thought and preparation, when all it would take is someone to say 'how about we just take the meat away from the plate, and put a bit more of something else there?!'
It's often an opportunity to make fun of me as well, but all I've done is decided not to eat certain foods, why should it bother anyone else? It seems that in this day and age, as we're becoming a more health-conscious society; more and more people are cutting meat out of their diets. Yet I still feel a little bit like an alien.
I quite like having things that make me stand out  a little, even if it isn't something that's really that great.
I like to think that I don't eat meat because I stick to the morals that I believe in. We all have our own personal beliefs, even if we don't consciously know what they are. And I believe that our own morals that we live by are as unique as our fingerprints. I'm far from perfect in many respects, but taking a stand and not eating animals makes me feel like I'm not a complete monster. It's nice to have something to believe in.