Resolute

New Year's Resolutions

1) Live a mostly vegan lifestyle.
Why the mostly?
a) There are currenly only ugly (super ugly) vegan shoes for sale on Zappos.com, and until the selection improves dramatically I will not throw away or give away my leather shoes. Period.
b) I am intent on eating my wedding cake, which - though technically vegetarian - will hopefully have enough butter to rock my world.

Why the vegan?
a) I read a book. I love books; I read a lot over Winter Break. The book is Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. My sister said that I should read it.

Here's the thing: since I was like, 8, I've heard stories about how KFC grows freak chickens with no beaks that can't walk and about how their toes grow into the cage and they are covered in shit. I really thought that was bullshit (it's not).

When I was in college, I became a vegetarian because it was a more sustainable way of eating (it is). My vegetarianism met a glamorous end with a double bacon cheese burger on a particularly interesting night out.

I bought a home in 2009, and I won't cook meat in my house because it grosses me out. No raw meat is a steadfast rule. I won't drink milk because it grosses me out; I've been drinking soy since I was about 17. I do not buy Lean Cuisines that contain meat. Ever. When I eat out, I eat meat...but that's it...and not always even then.

I believe passionately that justice means ending preventable suffering and wrong-doing the world over. I believe that social justice will be best achieved through education, and I spend approximately 70 hours per week (in and out of school) working toward this end. I believe in justice.

So I read a book about eating animals, and I can't justify to myself eating animals anymore. The book made me take a hard, well-researched look at from where my meat comes...and it's unjust.

In a desperate moment in which I NEEDED to write about my choice and made it public, I wrote a note on facebook (I enjoyed writing this note, which is why I am actually making a post on my blog that I've had for years and never used):

"Every day I am faced with an integrity crisis: a disconnect between what I believe and the way in which I eat. I know - have known for a long time - that from where my meat comes is not pretty. Is not good for the environment. Is not sustainable. Is not ok. I've been choosing to ignore it, and it just...can't.

I care about from where my food comes, and I believe that all animals deserve a cruelty-free life and a humane death. It's not just because I love my dogs and I can't imagine inflicting the hoorors on them that are inflicted on animals raised for food; it's because I believe that unnecessary and preventable suffering is wrong. Period. No matter what the species.

I'm not fundamentally opposed to eating animals, and I am opposed to the way in which most animals that are readily available and that I can afford to eat are raised and killed, as it is neither cruelty-free nor humane. I know that animals raised well and killed humanely exist. I also know that my ability to access those animals for my consumption is extremely limited (and often out of my price range). That's not ideal, and it's real.

I care about the world that I will someday leave to my students, my children, and my students' and children's children, and for that reason I cannot condone factory farming, it's use of antibiotics, its widespread pollution, and its role in putting the world at risk for a pandemic.

I'm not saying I'll never be a selective omnivore. I'm saying that for now, I care too much about the world to go on eating meat and eggs as if it's no big deal. It is a big deal, and it's not ok."

So now I'm a vegan. It's hard, and it's easier than I expected.

I'm not saying you're a bad person if you're not a vegan...except kind of I am. Sorry.

2) Communicate more effectively.

This has several subparts.

a) Respond to communication within 24 hours. Even if it's my grandma or my biological father (both of whom I routinely ignore for weeks on end...so not proud of this confession). This also goes for parent phone calls that I love to avoid (which only get worse if avoided, trust me) and my dog trainer (whom I am briefly firing until summer when I actually have time to dog train).

b) Decrease my use of profanity in non-work settings, especially home. The fact that I cannot use cuss words in front of teenagers in my job basically transforms me into a sailor at home. While I like to delude myself into thinking that this is (at least occasionally) quirky and charming, it's really not. Le sigh.

c) Be Fierce (please, if you have not done so, purchase Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott YESTERDAY and read it RIGHT NOW). In particular, I am going to tackle my toughest challenge TODAY (metaphorically today...), which is Principle 4 (and the one I looove to run from). I've got to man up and tell my biological father he's not walking me down the aisle (which I did not expect there to be ANY confusion over...and yet there is). Note: if you know him, please do not mention my blog post.

I expect that over the course of the next year, I will need to be Fierce a lot. By 2012 I will be married (getting to the wedding alone with take a huge degree of Fierce-ness with my family), have a new last name (btw...if you are even THINKING of changing your name after you get married and if you are even THINKING of getting married to your current significant other then you should snag that g-mail address RIGHT NOW because I almost had to be leah.peters48754 or something), have 2 well-trained dogs (please, god), be a mostly vegan, and have sur-thrived (I made this word up right now) another year as a high school principal (more like an Dean or Assistant Principal/AP, for those not in the know).

and

d) When I receive information (which we all do, all day long), I will do so actively. I have spent a lot of my life passively receiving information, and I've been either lucky or late when I relay the information that I receive (Eric will really laugh if he reads this). I will ask myself the following questions about information that I receive, and I will disseminate accordingly:

- To whom must this information go?

- How much should be shared?

- By when?

- (and most importantly) How? Do I need to do this face to face? Phone call? Over e-mail? Is urgency or empathy more important?

A Confession

Part of the reason that I'm going to start blogging is that my semester is going to suck. I'm going to do my damnedest to kick this semester's ass, and I acknowledge that it will suck. (I am trying not to fail at using less profanity.) A confession about me is this: I want to do everything because I believe I can do anything. I also believe that ANYONE can do ANYTHING, which is part of why I loooove to teach...and that's neither here nor there right now.

I am working full time as a high school principal. In addition, I teach Algebra II (at least it's only one period), am a Grade Level Chair (at least it's the smallest grade level BY FAR), and will be taking a more active role in managing Stu Co (at least it's only one semester and most of the events are already laid out).

I am a full-time grad student. 12 hours, 4 classes (at least one is independent study...too bad it's the thesis class). I will have class Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights from 5:30pm until 8:30pm.

I am resolute that I can do this, and I will need to write about it to be ok...so here we are.