vegan columbus: vegan living in central ohio

Current Area South Campus
Occupation I work at Magnolia Thunderpussy, I write for donewaiting.com and The Other Paper, and I started writing graffiti a long time ago but stopped.
How long have you been vegan?
I can't remember. At least 6 or 7 years.

What made you decide to do it?
I had a lot of vegan friends. They were cool people but they always seemed to have an ego about vegan so I decided to become vegan out of spite for them initially, to be like "This is easy!" One of them, knowing my sense of humor, said "Okay, Wes. Why don't you read 'Diet for a New America'? That will show us." I read it, and I couldn't get the de-beaking and warehousing of animals out of my brain. So, then I really didn't have a choice.

What's your best dish?
I don't know if this is my best dish. Actually, maybe it's my worst, but I'm constantly trying to make vegan Étouffée.

I don't even know what that is.
It's a Cajun dish that usually involves crawfish (I went to college in Louisiana).

Favorite restaurant?
That Jamaican jump-off on Cleveland Avenue or Son Tung Luck in Carriage Place because of friendliness and nostalgia. The Jamaican spot says 'vegetarian' on the sign, but they only have one vegetarian dish. I said, "What's the vegan one?" and they point at at it. It's cool though cause they have this private lounge you can talk yourself into and if they let you in you can eat food while a deejay smokes weed and plays homophobic dancehall music loudly. Oh, and Blue Nile.

What are your top 3 kitchen mainstays?
Olive oil, brown rice, frozen vegetables

Any vegan pet peeves?
Pet peeve? Pets, unless people have the facilities and take care of them properly and have them live healthy.

Anything you want to add?
My mom came down with cancer 3 years ago. She had surgery, did chemo and all that jazz. The cancer came back, doctors said there was no hope, so my mom decided to skip out on chemo and go vegan just on the idea that the hormones in meat could possibly make her tumors grow and the idea if she is going to die she might as well be as healthy as possibly while dying. Well, her cancer counts dropped for a year and half. And, let me remind you that the doctors had told her not even chemo could save her. So, my family used to make fun of me being vegan but now they respect it because it may have prolonged my mother's life. Her cancer is back and it's growing because it's inevitable, but veganism has at least added 2 to 3 years to my mothers life. She is strong, she isn't gonna die tomorrow. But, still, my mom was a lifelong meat-eater and just changing now helped immensely.

I also feel like veganism is something that doesn't just apply to animals. If you can help avoiding hurting things you should.