As I’m sure many vegans can attest to, once you’ve been vegan for a certain amount of time, you’ll have answered enough of the same taxing and unimaginative questions to warrant carrying a FAQs page around with you. We’ve all been asked where we get our protein from, why we buy meat substitutes if we don’t want to eat meat, and which animal product we ‘miss the most’, but how do we maintain a polite smile when we’re forced to repeat the same answers? As representatives of the vegan community, just how important is the way that we carry ourselves in tiring conversations?
Questions like these prompt me to reflect on what converted me to veganism in the first place. Of the vegans that I knew when I was still a meat-eater, it was the individuals that were welcoming of my intrigue, and answered my queries with patience and compassion (despite how many times they had undoubtedly had the same conversations before), that helped me find the plant-based path. I wonder, if these same people had responded to my genuine concerns with frustration and impatience, would I have ended up vegan at all? For each of us that may say ‘Yes, I’d have turned vegan no matter what’, there are many others in our community that might not have if they had missed out on positive interactions with long-time vegans, before making the change themselves.