“Um, I’m sorry? What?” I respond, because, I am not usually addressed as such.
“Yeah, you’re a vegetarian, right? One of “those” people,” the guy in HR says to me again.
I look at him blankly. “Point?” I ask, tapping my foot as that was NOT the reason I was in his office.
“You people cause so many problems at events because you speak up,” he responds.
And yes, if you are curious, I do have a very confused look on my face.
“I’m sorry, I have no idea what you are talking about,” I respond, having much better things in mind to do with my time than have this conversation.
“Yeah, you veggie people are as bad as diet, sugar-free soda people. You always speak up when things like meetings are held, you can always make sure you have your veggie pizza and your diet coke, and because you speak up, there’s too much, and then some people have to eat your veggie pizza!” he explains, pointedly.
Yeah, this guy was totally serious. “Are you kidding me?” I asked him, “Because I am pretty sure that no one in this office will die of eating a vegetable. In fact, I am 100% sure it will benefit this entire office to eat a leaf of lettuce once in a while. However, if you are so concerned, maybe you should just order less. Problem solved.”
This argument went on for a while, but I can honestly say, I have never been called a “you people” or a “one of those people” before for eating healthy. I get resistance all the time from people, but this was a first of accusing me of forcing health on someone (and for the record, I have never asked for veggie pizza at a company meeting).
Have you received this kind of reaction to your vegetarian or vegan eating habits before? How did you react or handle it?
I was a little sick today with a cold, and knew I needed lots of veggies tonight for dinner. Veggies make everything better. So, I decided to throw together a make-shift stir-fry with ingredients that I had lying around in my vegetable drawer. I literally just started grabbing anything that was grown in a garden, and started chucking it in. Only thing I didn’t were my tomatoes. Sometime people crave soup, or grilled cheese when they get sick. I crave veggies. And I just dumped them all in there like I was throwing trash in a trash can. Since my lovely wok has gone missing in years of moving all over the country, I just used a frying pan. It works.