Hello, and welcome back to Eight Years In! As the name of the site suggests, I’ve been vegan for years now. And recently, I celebrated my nine year vegan anniversary! I’ve very much enjoyed my vegan journey, as well as creating this website for you all to follow along and learn with me.

And today, I wanted to look back at some of the lessons that I’ve learned along the way. Because as much as being vegan is simple in theory, it is what I would consider a learning experience.

Upon deciding to be vegan, I learned a lot about veganism, the world around me, and myself. Nine years in, and I have to admit, I’m still learning. So here are a few of the lessons I’ve learned over the years of being vegan. I hope you enjoy and are able to learn from my experience!

Sometimes, it really is just a choice

   We have so many excuses in life for why we can’t do or be way we want. I had and have many myself. And yet, with all of that being said, I still went vegan. 

   I was the person for years who said I wished I could be a vegetarian but I just couldn’t. And yet, when it came down to it, when I finally understood what the animals were going through, it was like a switch went off in my brain and it didn’t matter. I knew I didn’t want to be a part of that cruelty and so I had to give it my all. 

   Once I really committed to doing so, I was able to be not just vegetarian but vegan, even after years of saying that I couldn’t. Really what needed to happen was I needed to get out of my own way. 

Vegetables are delicious!

   Now, I really wasn’t familiar with vegetables before going vegan, or even a while after. I would say about three or four years into my veganism, I started looking for ways to get more variation into my diet and that included learning to cook better, try out more vegan replacement products as well as new ingredients I hadn’t tried before, including vegetables. 

   My family generally couldn’t afford fresh produce growing up and so I wasn’t really familiar with it, but I had heard from a lot of people that they weren’t delicious and that eating healthy was a chore. So when I did start, I started from what I consider a limited perspective. 

   However, after working more with fresh produce I started to really enjoy it and see how delicious it could be. Each ingredient was something new for my repertoire and I found myself enjoying my meals more and more. How lucky I am that I decided not to limit myself. 

Cognitive dissonance is uncomfortable 

  When I first went vegan, it felt as though something had been ripped away from me, some sense of ignorant bliss, baseless comfort. It felt very upsetting, knowing what was truly going on with the animals that we eat. But as time went on, I realized something; I felt better. 

   I really underestimated how much discomfort I was pushing back on a regular basis in order to eat meat, specifically. While I didn’t know the horrific practices of animal agriculture, in the back of my mind, I did know that animals had to die in order for me to eat meat. And I did fine repressing that information. Really, I did. But once I was free from participating in that activity, it was like a burden was lifted off of my shoulders. 

   I never would have guessed how uncomfortable I was in the background of it all. But once I took away the habit, I felt much freer, and much more myself. I was living more in tune with my values. And now I understand that that is a really valuable thing, both hypothetically and emotionally. I love being vegan, because I know when I say I don’t want animals to be harmed or mistreated, I’m living in alignment with that statement. 

A lot of people don’t want to talk about uncomfortable things 

   I think that I had an inkling of this point before going vegan, for sure. And it makes sense. We don’t like talking about things that upset us. We would much rather look at sunshine and rainbows and comfort ourselves as we go throughout our daily lives. I think for the most part, this is a reasonable way of navigating our life experiences. 

   However, at a certain point what was once comfort becomes sticking your head in the sand. And while not even that is bad in and of itself, I believe it’s quite counterproductive when it comes to situations in which you have culpability. 

Comfort vs irresponsibility

   The fact is, people genuinely would rather keep continuing to contribute to the death and confinement of animals (not to mention the mistreatment they suffer in the meantime) for their own pleasure, than hear that that’s what they’re doing. And it’s about discomfort. We want convenience. Many people convince themselves that they are not able to hear about the consequences of their actions because of this. Which is really sad, because they’re contributing to things that are contrary to their values.

   They would rather just block it out than deal with the discomfort of looking at the effects of their actions. And when it comes to these life and death scenarios, it seems  odd. Nonsensical. Like something weird that misanthropic vegans make up. But it’s true, this is human nature and human avoidance of their own cognitive dissonance will really go to that much trouble. And not just in extreme situations either. 

   This is good to know, both in your interactions with nonvegans but also in your own personal journey of exploring yourself. Remember that even if you went vegan, you are not immune to this stubborn cognitive dissonance. And use this in your practice of self-observation and exploration. You may be stubbornly refusing to see something completely egregious too. Learn to question yourself and be open to new ways of living and doing things. 

It’s okay to be different

   If there’s one thing that changed when I went vegan, it’s that all of a sudden, I was considered “different” a lot more than I ever had been before. And at first it was a bit frustrating and uncomfortable. Sometimes it still is. But over time I’ve grown into a new perspective about it.

   I didn’t go vegan because I wanted to stand out. Also, I didn’t go vegan because I wanted to fit in. I did it because I felt it was the right thing to do, and for me I can definitely say that it has been. 

   Over time, as I reflect on that, I’ve gotten more and more comfortable with the knowledge that I’m not always going to fit in. And honestly, I don’t always want to. Sometimes what most people do just isn’t going to be right for you, and sometimes what most people do just isn’t ethically right at all. It’s up to you to be able to say, “No. Even though this is what you do, I don’t want this in my life.” That’s a skill that’s applicable to way more than just veganism.

Happy veganism!

Thank you for reading my thoughts and helping me celebrate nine years of veganism. If you’re vegan, let us know in the comments what you’ve learned through this experience. If you know anyone who’s interested in going vegan, be sure to share this post with them to help them along their journey. And if you’re interested in going vegan but think you’re not ready yet, try easing into it by reading this post about how to get closer to veganism. As usual, have a great day!