Who Are You? Why Are You Here?
I could be anyone…
The girl sitting in front of you in class,
The shy boy who lives across the street,
The woman working at the finance department who sips on orange juice all day,
The man you see walking to the bus stop with the headphones on weekdays.
I could be anyone…
And everyone.
In fact UrbanEarthlings has many faces but lets start with one.
My name is Amira. I’m a twenty-something earthling. If we’re friends on Facebook then you’ve probably seen pictures of me stuffing my face with Australian burgers, McDonalds fries or a big pepperoni pizza…
If we went to school together then you probably know that I didn’t stand out… I was pretty standard! Good grades, average looks, an average sense of humor… lots of friends but well… nothing out of the ordinary…
I always loved life though. I love the sea… I love animals without exception… I love food and new places and every thing that life has to offer…
So, as a young girl, my grandpa took me to the zoo, my parents took me to the sea world… we ate frog legs on lake Michigan and then my grandpa took me to Singapore and Thailand… more zoos and aquariums!
And then I was suddenly 20 and I traveled more often… I was still eating everything and anything… I tried lots of new things… I went to every zoo and every aquarium I came across… I had oysters at the Nord See, clams on the Balearic sea, tried camel burger in morocco and kangaroo meat in Germany.
I don’t regret much in life… but I wish someone had told me…
I didn’t know that my lifestyle contributed to so much suffering in the world…
During the past few years I changed a lot… from the books I read to the people I met. I was developing intolerance to animal abuse like no other, I’d cry over the dead giraffe at the zoo, argue with the man hurting the bleeding donkey and scream and yell and kick for the dead dog on the side of the road.
One of the first things that sparked my interest in veganism came in the form of… “The monk who sold his Ferrari.” Since reading that book, the raw diet was somewhere in the back of my mind and I’ve always known that I’d make it happen someday! After all, I will need to clean up all the junk that has been piling up inside my body… but I always though, someday… as if that someday can not be today..
On a cold February, two years ago, my mom and I were driving late and I saw a cat that had just been hit by a car, it was seizing and dying slowly… I screamed “stop the car, stop now,” She wouldn’t stop, she knew I’d go mad if I go anywhere near the dying cat. I was traumatized. I cried alone all night and I couldn’t speak properly for a couple of days!
On the 7th of March of the same year, my life changed. I spent the weekend alone with everyone I know out of town. I got up early, practiced some yoga and then made myself some pancakes with milk and eggs and of course I topped it with nutella. I put on a YouTube video and fortunately, I started binge watching “what I ate today” videos… I came across a link that said “101 reasons to go vegan” and I thought “hmm, why not?”
I started watching, not knowing that this is an hour-long lecture that would change how I viewed everything… within 30 minutes I was crying hysterically and by the time I finished I quickly started writing to Annie, the girl who led me to the video.
I have been on a plant-based diet since then…
Do I ever look back? No.
Do I miss meat, dairy or eggs? No.
Is there anything that I don’t like about the vegan diet? YES…
Why didn’t I know about how easy this is before? Why don’t we think about the source of our food? Why haven’t I been on a vegan diet since… umm forever? Why is this misunderstood? Why is it regarded as an extreme?
Being a vegan has been an eye-opening, life-changing experience for me and this is why I’m here. I have been gradually changing the way I live and I realize that there are so many people out there, especially the young ones, who are looking for this but do not know how to access it. I will share everything I know but before I do, I want you to know one thing… I have absolutely nothing to gain from this… in fact I have a lot to lose… I am only tying to win you over because I was YOU before and I only realized how glad I am that things changed, long after they changed.
But for me, this is not about food anymore. This is simply about existence.
So, here’s what to expect on the UrbanEarthlings during the next few months (or hopefully years)
- Restaurant reviews and how to eat vegan in different restaurants around Egypt
- Plant-based Recipes
- Interviews with people who are trying to improve the quality of our lives
- Veganism and Religion
- Attempting to live a greener more sustainable life in Egypt including concepts like slow food, slow fashion and zero-waste
- Eating vegan while traveling
- Ethical, mindful or conscious travel
- Animal rights and rescue donations
- and a lot more..
If you have any suggestions or comments please feel free to contact me here. I’d love to hear from you!
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I’ve also complied a resource page for you. You can check it out here!
Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist; I am not a doctor, a certified trainer, a health coach or anything of that sort. Ever since I switched to a plant based diet, I have been reading and researching the topic from many aspects and everything I will be sharing will come from personal experience or else will be cited.