The vegetarian girl in an omnivores society.

The story began when I was born. No, seriously, from the day I was born, I was a vegetarian. My name is Salima. Growing up, I’ve heard the same questions more than enough, like “why are you a vegetarian?

What made you become a vegetarian? Is anyone in your family a vegetarian?

Is this some disease?

And the answer back then was mainly “because I was raised a vegetarian and something about caring for the animals. But no, I was just naturally created that way.

I always asked myself, what makes people ask me those questions?

What triggers them?

It’s not like I’m the first vegetarian ever in the world.

After profoundly thinking, I realised it’s because I live in Nigeria. A country where people are so crazy about meat and anything flesh because when I lived with foreigners back then in Paris, there were many vegetarians, which is normal to them.

Growing up, I was the only born vegetarian among my siblings. I’d never seen anything wrong with being a vegetarian until one day, I was on my way back home from Islamiyya( A school that teaches about Islam ). One of my father’s friends saw me and decided to buy me cooked fish by the road. I could not say no to him because I knew I would sound weird or rude. I was so eager to get home. It was the scariest thing, and I held the polythene bag with just a finger. I had almost arrived home when I noticed a waste bin, and the voice in my head kept saying, “throw it away, get rid of it”. I felt so disgusted, especially whenever I perceived the smell of it.

I reached for the waste bin without thinking twice,

as I was about to get rid of it, I heard a voice almost like from nowhere “what is that in your hands?” my uncle asked.

I replied, “someone gave me a cooked fish”,

then he was like, “give it to me now!” and he collected it.

I quickly ran inside the house to wash my hands while he was so happy to have gotten some cooked fish.

This kind of incident is something I have gotten used to with time.

I am a slim girl, average in height, and I’ve not changed much since I was a child. Anyone that knew me as a child and saw me now would recognise me. I am very slim, and people say, “You’re slim because you don’t eat meat. “Ok fine” I agree eating meat has its benefits. Still, the truth is the way my body looks has nothing to do with vegetarianism. Even if I was to eat meat now, I know that I would not change. I have friends and have seen people that are vegetarians but are fat. Struggling as a vegetarian is not easy; you get questioned anywhere you go, but it never let me down.

I kept pushing even though I was in a society that always thought I was not normal.

What gave me the courage to be proud of my so-called disease was when I found out that many people are beginning to see the benefits of vegetarianism as they move away from their omnivorous mindset. Scientifically proven, being vegetarian helps lower blood pressure, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes rates than meat-eaters. On top of all that, it gave me something unique to tell people when I was younger. I’ve been a vegetarian from birth, and I couldn’t be happier.

Advice to all the people out there like me being a vegetarian is not a crime, but it gives you the ability to stay healthy.

And by the way, vegetarians don’t eat grass.