Conversation With a Teenage Vegan, II

We're two weeks into Lent, and I wanted to check in with my sister, Summer, to hear how her vegan experience has been going. She seems to be having a pretty easy time with it so far. Read on to find out what a teenage girl thinks about being vegan!

Dinner Peace: What has been the hardest part of being vegan so far?
Summer Boucher: I keep forgetting that I’m completely vegan now, because I was mostly vegan before.So, I keep forgetting that I can’t have some of my friend Sanjna’s birthday cake, or when I go to Starbucks with my friends, I can’t find anything to eat for breakfast. One day, I was sitting in class and it came up that I was vegan. Of course, people asked me what I eat, and I told them, normal stuff like pasta and Mexican food. One of my friends responded that I was missing all the good stuff like shrimp in shrimp fajitas. Then they started having their own conversation about how delicious shrimp fajitas were.

DP: Did that make you miss shrimp fajitas?
SB: Not really. But, the other day, I was in the grocery store, and I was really hungry, and I smelled a rotisserie chicken, and it smelled soooo good.
DP: I had the same experience the other day. I was out shopping, and I smelled hamburgers, and it smelled soooo good.

DP: What’s the best vegan food you’ve had in the last two weeks?
SB: Vegan spring rolls, the Macrobiotic Lunch at Koji’s Sushi, and pretty much all Asian food. The Oriental flavored Ramen Noodles. And Chocolate-Dipped Oreos.

DP: How do your friends respond to you being vegan?
SB: They think it’s weird, and say they could never do it. They tell me they could never give up meat or cheese, and I tell them that it’s actually not that hard.

DP: Do you think it’s hard?
SB: No. It’s easier this time, because before, we changed our diet so dramatically. Now, I already eat vegan most of the time, so it’s easier.