The Shaping of My Eating Habit

 I became a stable vegetarian at age 14.
 Any attempt I made at it earlier in life just never stuck around, but this time it worked out.  
 Being 21 now, and not 14, I feel weird saying it, but I can probably say that at that point, becoming a vegetarian had a lot to do with the people I wanted to identify with or admired.

Music had a huge influence on me, and a lot of the people I listened to happened to be vegetarians.
Most importantly, my all time favorite musician (Conor Oberst, if you're curious) was a vegan at this point and had a video on PETA talking about his hate for meat--which led me to explore more of PETA, which is pretty good at making meat undesirable...
Watching the video now definitely doesn't illicit the same feelings, but this video changed me a lot.  Hearing someone I respected talk about being vegetarian made it easier for me because being vegetarian helped me identify with whatever identity it was back then that I wanted to identify with. The opinions of people I admired greatly shaped me.  I made this diet change because I felt it fit me.

My reasons for being a vegetarian have greatly evolved and my viewpoints are way different from back then. But, the point is, it’s interesting how we adjust our diet to fit certain identities we want to be able to be a part of--or don't want to be a part of I suppose. For example, think of the personality traits we associate with a fast food lover vs. the traits of a vegan. They're specific!
But, why does one’s food preference dictate their identity? What does a vegetarian even look like?

Actually, I wikipediaed "vegetarians" and found that there was actually a pattern, specifically in their occupations. There was over 400 vegetarians listed, and a huge majority of them fit into the category of musician, philosopher, writer, actor, or something very similar/intellectual. There is even a “disputed vegetarians” section where it claims that people like Darwin, Plato, and Shakespeare were all vegetarians! So oddly, it looks like there actually is some sort of connection between your diet and who you are. But, do they come hand in hand or is it a causal relationship? I obviously don't know, but it's really pretty interesting to think about it. Oh and apparently Frankenstein’s monster was a vegetarian! I’m not sure if this works fo or against vegetarianism…

And just in case anybody wants to see/hear the perspective on meat that helped me change, here is the video, haha!