I just cannot get what happened last night out of my head so hopefully writing about it will help. I stopped by my parents house because I knew they were having fiends over and I wanted to say hello to everyone. When I got there everyone was sitting outside in the front yard playing cards, and when I walked up they all said hi to me. Except one guy who had to say ‘hey vegan’. Which didn’t bother me, I’m proud to be vegan so whatever. I do wonder however what it is my parents go around saying about this. Because I know they aren’t necessarily proud of me or see my change to go vegan as being a noble decision. So I imagine them all sitting around saying things like, “oh that Megan, she’s into another one of her weird phases, she’s Vegan now.” I can just see them having a good laugh too. But this isn’t even what really bothers me. I can except that it will take time for them to accept my decision, and hopefully one day they will even try to understand why I’ve made the choices I have. So I’m sitting with them all and one of the women asked what made me want to go vegan. A guy next to her sarcastically said ‘go ahead just tell her it was a movie you saw.” To which I replied, “actually it was.” I mentioned the movie and told her after seeing it I did a lot of research and found out a lot of things I didn’t know. Then the guy says some smartass comment about me having a “young impressionable mind.” I was a bit taken back by this but his comment didn’t fully hit me until I had left for the evening. What an ignorant thing to say. Just because I’ve chosen to better myself and have an open mind he was implying I was stupid, or in some way less intelligent than him. There are so many things now I wish I would have replied with but I didn’t. So he thinks he was right. I am so pissed at this. Then later on someone else was eating cheese and had to point it out to me, I just shook my head. He said something about how nothing was killed for his cheese. I began to correct him but half way thorough my little rant I noticed he hadn’t heard a single word I said. This really upsets me as well. Why do they think they have the right to question my beliefs but then when I try to explain they simply ignore me? I understand these kinds of people don’t really give a dam about what I have to say because they don’t want to change. Which is why I wouldn’t waste my time or energy discussing the topic with them. But it’s not fair if they ask but then don’t really what an answer. I’ve been thinking what I should say in these type of situations so I’m not the one upset in the end. I know how my parents feel about causing conflict so I don’t bring up the topic around them, but if their friends inquire what I am supposed to do? Sit there and take it out of respect for my parents? A similar thing has happened at work where people will ask me something, seemingly genuine at the time, but I quickly realize when I speak they don’t hear me they only want to try to prove their own points. So I’ve come up with what I hope will be a good solution for everyone involved. From now on when I am in situations where this discussion would be inappropriate I will simply try to remember to respectfully tell people that I would love to discuss their question but now isn’t really an appropriate time. I can suggest we go to lunch or making them a vegan dinner where we can talk about any of their concerns. I really hope this will work for me because I don’t know what else to do. I have enough stress to deal with without ignorant assholes trying to prove me wrong so they can selfishly continue eating their animal flesh guilt free.