What it means to be a Vegetarian

Until 12 years old, I would refuse to visit anyone who refused to cook chicken for me. As a child I loved eating char siew (fried pork) rice, mutton curry and seafood. Then one day in my 12th year, I suddenly vomitted when eating chicken and egg and stopped eating both forever then on. One day when I was 13, I had an immense craving for pork. After gorging myself on it, I suddenly lost all desire for pork when I saw the numerous hair on its skin and stopped eating pork ever since. I then read some Buddhist teachings that said that one must practise compassion towards the animals as this will bring good karma and transform bad karma. From then on I tried to consciously abstain from meat as much as possible and prayed to become a vegetarian. However it was very hard and I told myself not to be too false if I still had cravings for them. So I still ate my favorite mutton curry, prawn sambal, cuttlefish and fish although at a reduced rate as much as possible. I kept praying and tried to exercise self-discipline to a certain extent. Then when I was about 30 years old, I stopped liking and eating mutton and seafood forever. I then continued to eat fish occasionally as I was afraid of protein and health issues. In about 2 years, I felt nausea everytime I tried to eat fish and could only eat raw salmon from Japanese restaurants. Then 2 years ago, through my intuition and dreams it was confirmed that I should let go of salmon and become a full fledged vegetarian. It took me one year after that to feel confident that I had the right supplementary diet to support my health fully. In 2012, I had urgings from other vegans to become dairy free. One year later, I am slowly finding the power to become vegan with the right supplementary diet to support me. My journey to becoming a vegetarian was a slow, long albeit steady, guided, loved and supported one. It's the decision and committment that opens the doors to becoming a vegetation successfully. In the earlier days, it was hard for me to find vegetarian food. As my committment to being a vegetarian deepened, new vegetarian eateries and dishes started blooming wherever I went, even overseas. This is definitely a path full of challenges, sacrifices and inconveniences daily. However if you understand that you are stopping yourself from killing and spreading violence and cruelty to living beings that breathe, reproduce, love and have families and relationships just like humans, you will derive immense joy and love from this journey. My family is not a vegetarian and it was hard for them to adapt to me being a vegetarian. But as I remained firm in my committment, they started supporting me more and more.