My best friend at UCLA is a vegetarian. I didn’t think much of it until I was deciding on my project for this seminar. I thought, “If Amy can easily be a vegetarian, so can I.” Having a friend who supported my decision made it that much easier to know where to begin.
As the weeks went on and I learned more and more about vegetarianism and the food system through this class, I became extremely grateful that this is the project I chose. Every movie we watched and book we read made me more convinced to stick with this diet after this class is over.
Eventually, this mentality began to rub off on two of our other friends, Lila and Emelia. Two out of the four of us were vegetarian, so it was a natural decision for the other two to try it out. While one remained pescetarian and one continued to eat meat once a week, many of our meals were completely meatless. I do not think they would’ve decided to try out vegetarianism without the influence of my project, and I would not have been inspired to become vegetarian without Amy.
This concept reminds me of a blog by Derek Sivers about leadership (http://sivers.org/ff). A strong leader is not the most important element. The key components of a successful movement are the first followers. They transform the lone nut’s philosophy into a legitimate idea, and that is how vegetarianism is moving through my group of friends.
While I try not to preach to my omnivore friends, it is difficult not to share the knowledge I’ve acquired through this adventure, and I’m glad that the message of sustainability has reached not only me, but a few of my close friends as well, and I have Amy’s vegetarianism and Brian’s seminar to thank for that.
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