My name is Troy Bottem, I am a senior music performance major from Plano,TX. I am an active freelance oboe/English horn player in the DFW area as well as a substitute musician for local mid-cities symphonies. Here at TCU, I perform with the Symphony Orchestra, the Wind Symphony, and the TCU Marching Band. I plan on going to graduate school next year, most likely at TCU, Rice, or UT because in my field of study, its almost required to get a graduate degree if you want to find a good job somewhere. I am a vegetarian and have been for a bit over a year now and I don't see myself ever going back to eating meat. Most people are surprised when they find out I am a vegetarian probably because I'm a big guy, but that doesn't bother me because I have my own reasons for it. I like for people to see me as a caring person because in my eyes, the people that I want to be around are thoughtful and responsible individuals.
Just this past year, I have had multiple arguments with my friends regarding being a vegetarian. Most recently, my roommate picked a fight with me because he doesn't understand why I don't eat meat. We went back and forth giving reasons for eating/not eating meat, which seemed to not go anywhere because nobody's ideas were changed even slightly. I brought up facts done by independent research, and so did he, but neither of us believed the other even though our facts were published by many reputable sources. In my mind, there is nothing I could have said to him to even try to see things the way I see them. I don't think either of us won that argument, which seems to happen to me a lot. Is there always a winner/loser in an argument?
Until this summer I had never had any friends that were vegetarian but I worked at a Young Life camp this summer in Canada where I met a ton of people who were either vegan or vegetarian. It was very interesting to hear their reasons for being vegetarian. Similar to your situation, they told me about times when people chastised them for being vegetarian and said that they wish people would just leave them alone about it. I personally am not vegetarian so I do not understand what it is like to have people ask you about it all the time but I am sorry that you have to deal with arguments with your roommate about it. I don't really think there is ever a winner or loser in an argument because both sides usually have valid points that support what they believe and even after the argument each side is going to think that their points are valid and their opinion is better.
ReplyDeleteI know multiple individuals who are vegetarian. Many of those people don't "look like" they would be vegetarians either. As a personal preference, I don't like to eat meat, so many times I opt for tofu or vegetarian alternatives; as a result, I am frequently mistaken for a vegetarian. I think that your situation is a good example of a common conflict over personal lifestyle choices. I find it extremely curious that other people seem to be bothered by our own decisions that have no effect on anyone else. Furthermore, I believe that arguments over lifestyle choices, politics, religion, etc. are simply not worth having amongst friends. People typically seem to mistake and interchange the words argument and discussion. I think that, on these topics especially, people need to be careful how they approach the conversation lest it transform from a friendly discussion to a heated argument.
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