Now where to start? Ah yes, perhaps fittingly where it all began.
At such an early age of innocence, 4 , my eyes were glued to the TV. Why you may ask? Well Land Before Time was on! This grew my fascination will of those ancient old animals from another life ago. I loved them, by 6 I knew over 30+ dinosaurs and drew them regularly . Later on you must have imagined my delight when I came upon Jurassic Park franchise.
This fascination with animals soon fabricated towards more modern day animals. I owned a bunny name fluffy whom I loved dearly, sadly a new Cat around my neighboured got it, but through this I learned responsibility of a pet & life a death and the cruelty of mother nature. Then low & behold on TV I saw a WSPA advert. Despite being only 8 , I demanded my Mother, yes demanded, the women should call up WSPA and subscribe. I wanted to donate my own money! What money would an 8 year old would possess? Well remember the Tooth Fairy? Every bit of that went to monthly donations to the plight of the WSPA. Yet my biggest influence was right around the corner....
CRIKEY! A ball of energy leaped from a dingy into the water only then to wrestle a crocodile. At the time, I thought Steve Irwin was bigger than life. I replicated what he did through purchasing my own Kahki uniform and I would leap down from the couch onto my stuffed crocodile, pretending to wrestle it. As I was far to young to understand his message, it's only years later,after his passing have I seen such an effect he had on the world and how passionate he was about wildlife and their conservation .I could go on forever about this man, but I'll leave it at this, the older I get, the more I realise what he has done for the animals of this world and what an incredible man he was.
Now somewhere down the line, through High School this author , he lost his way as a matter of speaking. His legs were in constant pain and this made him a very bitter person. He no longer donated money to WSPA nor cared for any other animal at all other than his dog. He would eat 40 nuggets as a snack between meals. He was not fat, but of a stocky figure. Then one day, fate would throw him another curveball. Being his unmotivated , lazy self, he did not apply for any work experience and left it to the last minute. Desperately he called his cousin who happened to work with Animals Australia. Low & behold, here I was to work there for a week. I was in charge of trying to call up famous vegetarian celebrities and brands as well as organising their forum layout. Through their website, I then saw the cruelty and unspeakable acts man had bestowed upon animals.
That lunch time, as I went on break, I strode down to the McDonald's on the corner of Vic Market, ordered a McChicken burger, raised it to my mouth, then something clicked. I am not sure what it was to this day, but I went cold turkey, I no longer wanted the flesh of something alive to sustain me.
Going cold turkey was not easy, oh no, but it made me find a new discipline. I was keen to avoid the mistakes of others so I started working out as I did not want to loose to much weight. Suddenly I felt lighter on my feet, my legs hurt so much less. I felt happier. A weight had lifted. Since those 4 years ago, I have now attempted to be raw vegan & other various vegetarian diets along the way. Recently however in the last few months, I prepared myself, writing down everything I would need to do and finding out the cheapest vegan produce available to my good self in my area. Now it's been four good months and I am Vegan.I can only hope to continue this into the future and live a cruelty free life.
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