Paying It Forward

By Published On: 10 June 2013Last Updated: 17 January 2017

I was once a kid who didn't really have a voice, who got bullied, and who had no one speaking up for me. I wanted to pay it forward and who better to give a voice to than who people deem as commodities: animals.

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Paying it Forward

By Crystal Tremblay, Guest Contributor

My parents have always had different reasons as to why they named me Crystal Dawn.  My father said it was because it reminded him of a beautiful morning, like how the sun hits the water at dawn.  My mother said she chose that name to mean a new beginning, the dawn of a new era.  I’m not sure which one was more prolific but growing up, I hated both answers.

The science nerd, and proud Grecian in me, used to tell them that crystal was just a solid material and was derived from the Greek word krustallos, meaning ice.  Solid ice: there is nothing prolific about that.  Once I became vegan, I found my name a bit more fitting because it really was the dawn of a new era and the beginning of something as beautiful as crystals.

I became vegan in college while I was taking a class with a professor who happened to be vegetarian.  In class, he showed Meet Your Meat.  That afternoon, I ordered my usual bacon cheeseburger but when I sat down to eat it, the video flashed before my eyes and I swear I could taste death.  I instantly became vegetarian.

I started researching and found that the dairy industry was just as bad as the meat industry.  I became vegan soon after and started to spread the word in any way I knew how, including college papers.  From Ethics to Democracy, Chemistry to Communication, I found a way to put a vegan spin on every paper.  I eventually graduated with two degrees, a B.A. in Politics and Law and a B.S. in Environmental Science, and a keen sense of what I wanted my impact on the planet to be.

Being vegan is so much more than what I eat; it is a way of life.  Once I understood what was happening, there was no way to turn back.  I was once a kid who didn’t really have a voice, who got bullied, and who had no one speaking up for me.  I wanted to pay it forward and who better to give a voice to than who people deem as commodities: animals.

I may not be writing college papers anymore, but I still write through my vegan lifestyle blog, Hard Rock Vegan.  I am part of the VegNews Street Team and have done races as part of the PETA Pack, while also enthusing others in taking steps towards veganism.

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HELLO! I'm KD Angle-Traegner.

Writer, activist, and founder of Four Urban Paws Sanctuary. I’m on a mission to help people live a vegan life. Read more about KD…

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