Chicaиαry

I was about eight when I stopped eating beef after reading an article in school about the treatment of cows. That combined with the constant smell of Jim's Steaks... I just lost the taste for it. And then there were times where I'd attempt other beef based dishes and my stomach was all "hell" and "no." (Coming from a single parent home living on a fixed income vomiting food was just as bad as throwing away food.)

As a kid, I lived down the street from Jim's Steaks, was a die hard Geno's fan but could appreciate Pat's Steaks, yet I didn't eat beef. Living in Philadelphia, where damn near everybody eats cheesesteak or craves steak, not wanting/eating a cheesesteak is akin to heresy.

But ever since then, I've tried to change my lifestyle to best suit the biological world around me.

Damn near every year I'd add a new fast food establishment to my list of places to never eat. When I was about nine I stopped drinking colored sodas; at 10 I stopped using hand dryers/paper towels/napkins to dry my hands; at 11 I took up gardening in an effort to plant something every chance I could and that I would never use pesticide/insecticide/bug spray; at 12 I decided I would not reproduce because part of the problem facing the world was the number of people in developed nations constantly procreating for whatever reason; at 13 I took a really close look at my closet and decided I didn't need so many clothes and donated everything I couldn't fit or would only wear once; at 14 I became the best coupon/bargain hunter so I could afford items that bore the recycle seal on them; at 15 I stopped drying clothes in a dryer instead hanging up everything everywhere; at 16 I started sleeping naked or as close to it as possible to save money and energy on laundry by having fewer clothes to wash; at 17 I decided to only ever drive if I could drive an eco friendly vehicle that hopefully was also energy efficient; I graduated high school, with many of classmates convinced I'd go to prison for eco-terrorism or animal rights.

They were kinda wrong and kinda right. My dedication to minimizing my impact on the world around me intensified when I went to college but sometimes it pushed me to an extreme not expected. I revoked my membership to PETA. Not because I lost support for the cause but because they seemed to not recognize that as much as they loved animals, it's not just a omnivorous lifestyle that harms them and their environment or that all animal testing is done in an unethical way or that all animal testing is done for cosmetics. (I worked in an animal research lab. We tested pharmaceuticals on mice.) In accordance with the law (which had to be followed or risk losing funding) most laboratory animals live three times longer in a lab than they would in the wild/cities where they are considered a pest.

I was willing to receive a failing a grade for organic chemistry and possibly never graduate for failure to meet course requirements for my degree because I refused to do a Raid (bug spray) lab or any experiment that didn't sit well with me. Long story short after a very insane bout with sexism and racism in a single night, the head of the chemistry department decided my refusal to not do an experiment should not prevent me from getting an A. That was probably the first time I felt I was doing something right but everyone around me wasn't staring at me like I was crazy.

Since those seemingly wild days I've stopped drinking bottled water because the bottled water industry (a multi-ibillion dollar industry) is the cause of many diseases and struggles facing people in third world nation and helps facilitate the oppression many women in those regions experience. Since before I left undergrad, I became an advocate of the Water Project, participating in events and donating to the cause of educating people about the water they use.

I suppose that most of my life, or at least for as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to save the planet or a part of it. I remember my Mom getting pissed off because I hid the eggs she'd bought. The moment I knew birds came from eggs, I knew I couldn't eat them. I had to keep them warm and let them hatch. Until I found out those eggs would never hatch. And yeah my lifestyle confuses people like my shopaholic sister who gets a new phone at least once a year, can't understand how you could ever have too many clothes, and finds nothing wrong with fast food.


Whatever. I like my life. But today on January 1, 2014 it occurs to me that about two years have gone by since I've made another change to my lifestyle. Certainly there's probably more that I could do but I can't think of anything at this point that is feasible for me to do.