You're vegan, which means that you're judging me.

This one isn't quite a statement, as much as it is an observation. It's a culmination of so many different questions, that it's hard to pinpoint it to any one of them, which is why I've tagged this one with so many of the questions. To be honest, I've been uncomfortable with addressing this issue for a while now, but I figured that I'd better, or else I'm letting the issue get the better of me.

Before I move forward, it may help to give a bit of background on my own journey to veganism. I was born and raised as a vegetarain. My mother would take the family to various vegan potlucks. I knew what veganism is from a very early age. I may not have known their full reasons for it, because as a kid, people mostly feed you platitudes like, "I'm vegan because animals are my friends." To a 10 year old, this is not only condescending, but also unhelpful.

My own reason for being vegetarian didn't come to light until I'd questioned my mother about it, who later on thought it over, and came back to me with, "We don't like to kill animals. It's not right." "Oh, so that's why dairy is OK, right?" "Yeah, exactly."

It was the best I had at the time, and I went about my life blithely unaware of the intricacies of it. Finally, I heard Bob and Jenna Torres, of Vegan Freak fame, go through and explain it in terms that made sense to me. It clicked in my head, but not completely. It had to sort of percolate in there, and I had to make the leap when I was good and ready for it. When I did, there was no turning back. It's been one of the easiest decisions I've ever made.

Notice what I said there. Easiest decision that I have ever made. Not my husband. Not my parents. Not someone screaming angry slogans at me in the streets. The decision that I made, after weighing the arguments in my own mind, and coming to my own conclusions.

At the end of the day, you're going to have to live your life on your own terms. If you're comfortable with what you're doing, then there's really not much I can do to change that. If you're not comfortable with what you're doing, you might want to examine why.

Either way, realise that I have extremely limited mental real estate. At the end of the day, I haven't got the time to judge you. You're doing a fine job of that on your own.