I'm not worried about GPT-2 anymore...

The next great invention
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The next great invention to help the households of the world must be vegan cheese.

In March last year I threw myself on the melting mercy of that must-know country of Austria, drinking a beer like eibonnst. With it, I ordered a cheese course in a restaurant that I didn’t remember being in some distant land but where I had just recently decided to be, a few weeks prior.

(I might be interested to know: Were you anyone else in your party who had ordered eibonnst this particular day?)

However, the cheese course was overwhelmingly vegan. The cheese, made by the chain, was almost fluffy and creamy, with bright gold cap-like tomato sauce topping it all off. As I was eating it, I was thinking: Dear Lord, how could there not be even more vegan cheese at my disposal?

"Just in case you’re under age, you can still go to the butcher and buy a whole chicken stuffed with strawberry jam, and still cook your own chips and fries," my friend said to me.

I was having a far bigger shock than I thought I would be: I had forgotten to tell my parents that I was vegan, and my parents couldn’t tell me why I had gone vegan, or that my indulgent vegan cheese is delicious, and also unhealthy for everyone involved, and that some people won’t go vegan simply because of a cheese plate in front of them.

After that, I was heavily conflicted about my veganism. My experience at the restaurant only confirmed my feeling that there are just more exciting ways to enjoy a table full of cheese and condiments with even more creaminess.

But I’m also nervous about the fallout I’ll have if I’m on social media, let alone read articles that want to turn a conversation about meat-eating into a conversation about politics. Many articles say as much, accusing vegans of being against nature, for killing non-human animals and, unfortunately, for not wanting to eat cheese anymore. There’s even an episode of Top Chef that discusses veganism and cheese in a similar way.

Now, I’m no political outsider. But my immediate reaction to a tag line that says "not vegan" is one of disinterest, followed by a plea to explain itself to another human being.