I Am Not Helpless

This post is about being able to look back on this month and realize it for what it is. This month has changed me. Not only am I know knowledgable but I am more passionate and driven than ever before. I no longer feel helpless and just sitting idly by hoping for someone to make the right choices. I am now, for what may be the first time in my life willing to fight. Don't get me wrong, I thought I was fighting before but I was simply speaking up. I'd attend a Cube of Truth here and host a tabling there. If there was something I did not like I may or may not say that depending on if I thought "that big of a deal." Now I am ready to fight, I am ready to piss some people off and I don't care how long my fight takes I will not stop until I achieve my goal.

My first wool protest following the campus rep summit #never21

This new me started with the PETA Campus Rep Summit July 26th. The summit is to teach us to be better animal rights activist on our campus. We are surrounded by amazing people who are all in different stages of there activism but ultimately we all have one goal. To be champions for the animals!

I met Ingrid Newkirk

We had some absolutely amazing presentations but the one that resonated with me the most was Dan Mathews. This man was one of the first to protest naked and was a driving force to get so many circuses shut down. He has been fearless in his fight for the animals and his presentation showed me that I can be fearless too. He also brought a coyote trap. I had heard about them, seen footage online but it never hit me the way seeing the trap in person did. It was petrifying to think that this thing that is strong enough and sharp to cut through bone was being used to trap coyotes for fur and many other animals such as dogs and cats are being killed in it as well. At the end of the summit, we were able to protest wool at Forever 21 with Ingrid Newkirk! Being able to meet Ingrid Newkirk, speak with her and even pick her mind a little bit helped steal in what I had learned from the Dan Mathews protest. Humans have fucked up. We have destroyed the lives of countless living beings and continue to destroy lives and humans are the only ones that can fix our mistakes. If I do not fight for animals, no one else will.  I have to be the voice for each and every living being. Right after the Dan Mathews presentation, I decided that I was going to host not one but two protests. I was going to fight for human rights and animal rights. I was going to fight for those who do not have a voice. I began to step outside of my comfort zone immediately and begun working to get Aramark off Old Dominion University's campus. Aramark is the number sole provider of food on campus and also the leading provider of prison food. They have been known to provided prisoners with spoiled food, food with maggots in it and even dog food. I want to begin the trend where places like Old Dominion University decide that they will not do business with a company that has such blatant human rights violations! Old Dominion has already demonstrated that they will not do not the right thing unless we fight back so best believe I will fight back.

I continued my fight for animal rights by going to my first animal rights march on August 17th! I had a ton of fun and was able to meet so many new people that all want to save lives. During the march, I continuously stepped out to talk to be about veganism and animal rights and while every conversation was not successful I created 5 new vegans and planted some seeds and everyone else! Marching for the animals felt great! I felt as if I was making the world just a little bit better and that in some way I was able to help save lives. If you remember from my first post I want to be a criminal investigator because I want to help people and I want to save lives but by being an animal rights activist I get to save hundreds to thousands of lives a year. It is so rewarding knowing that because of me someone doesn't get raped, doesn't have their baby taken away from them, doesn't get tortured and doesn't get murdered today.  It's rewarding to think that somewhere a mother is happy to be with her baby because I choose not to still her breast milk and I convinced someone else not to steal her breast milk either and because I choose not to pay someone to slice her babies throat and I convinced someone else to make the same decision. That march made it clear to me that I can make a difference and that I am not helpless.

Following the march, we attended a fur protest. Where I was again surrounded by a bunch of people that were willing to fight for animals. To fight for what's right. To fight for what they believed in even if it pissed a few people off. Being surrounded by all these amazing people showed me that it is ok to rock the boat and to upset some people. Nothing worth fighting for has ever been easy so between fighting against Aramark and for animals this year Old Dominion University will see a whole new me. One that is not afraid. One that is eager. One that is more passionate than ever. One that realizes her strengths. One that realizes her power. One that realized for the first time ever that she is not helpless but she is strong and she will not stop!