my name is griffen. i'm in my early twenties. i was born and raised in denver colorado. i'm a certified yoga teacher, play ukulele and am surrounded by beautiful friends and family. it's my sincere hope to find change in society and restore the compassion and inspiration in our communities.
i have chosen two major paths in life and would like to share to you why they're important to me.
veganism.
for me, not eating animals simply makes sense.
i became vegetarian shortly after my fourteenth birthday. i remember the day i sat in front of my computer watching animal rights videos. i cried so much that day and knew there was something wrong with eating meat. i knew there was a world of injustice out there and people were profiting from the suffering of animals. what was worse was the fact that many people turn a blind eye to the subject. i found that animals were my friends and not my entree.
three years down the road and a lot of learning my seventeen year old self went vegan. equipped with the knowledge i had obtained i couldn't even fathom eating or using animal products or by-products. veganism became something bigger than me, and i knew the effort i put forth were for the causes that would outlive me.
when i became vegan it was a very pivotal and beautiful moment in my life. i don't want to say it happened over night, but the idea resonated with me and stuck. and it will forever.
to me, it's truly about abstaining from exploitation. i firmly believe that being vegan is about the respect i find for animals because they are like us. they have feeling, emotion, family, community and most importantly because they feel the pain that is inflicted on them.
when i became vegan it was a very pivotal and beautiful moment in my life. i don't want to say it happened over night, but the idea resonated with me and stuck. and it will forever.
to me, it's truly about abstaining from exploitation. i firmly believe that being vegan is about the respect i find for animals because they are like us. they have feeling, emotion, family, community and most importantly because they feel the pain that is inflicted on them.
to me this lifestyle is about the truth i find in this world. its about the animals that are being created to be a subject in a science room. it's about the animals that are raised agriculturally to be destroyed for human consumption. it's about the animals who are born equal to us and are not given the chance to live a free and fulfilling life.
veganism gives me inspiration to live on the brighter side of life where no living creature is destroyed solely for my satisfaction.
straight edge,
came to me at the right time, because everyone around me was wasted.
i was a teenage drug addict and allowed my addictions to put me in pretty terrible situations. i watched beautiful people literally die because of a seven dollar bags of heroine. i lost myself and couldn't find my way back home.
there was no real emotion i was feeling at one point because if i wasn't medicated, i was self-medicated or intoxicated beyond belief. i had no structure and so much freedom at home that drugs and alcohol engulfed my entire life. they got the best of me and it became a rough and slippery slope.
i knew that straight edge would help to find the better version of myself. it was the message i found to be a better role model in society. to abstain from mainstream culture and social justifications that imprison the people around me. to find clarity and to be clean and sober in a self indulgent society that lives in excess.
