I was the first person in my family to go to university. I admit I took it for granted at the time, but my grandmother didn’t.
My grandmother is the person I take after the most. I look like her physically and have the same attitude to life. The main difference though is my grandmother was raised on the Saskatchewan prairies in Canada. She was fiercely intelligent but grew up in a family of farmers and settlers and when she moved to the UK she ran the family farm, selling fresh produce to the local community.
She lived to her late-90s and said she was “holding on until I’ve seen David in his cap and gown”. She was too frail to come to my graduation, but she got to see me as the first person in the family to hold a university degree and, perhaps true to her word, passed away soon after.
Last weekend, I accompanied my son James to King’s College, set on the banks of the Thames in central London. He’s been told that as long as he gets his predicted college grades then he’ll most likely be offered a place at one of the most prestigious universities in the UK. Of course, a lot can happen between then and now. He’s very aware that his older sister Daisy made a last-minute decision to skip university and get a job, and she’s just bought an Audi. And then there’s the very real barrier to overcome that student accomodation in central London is £350 a week.
But it shows what change, from the Canadian prairies to the banks of the Thames, can happen in just a couple of generations. And I couldn’t help but draw parallels to veganism too. My grandmother was born into a world where their relationship with animals was dictated by survival. But walking into the 19th courtyard of King’s College, the first thing to great us was a Beyond Burger truck and a vegan doughnut stand. In fact, the majority of the food sold on campus is plant-based.
Sometimes it’s hard to feel we’re making a difference. But if you keep doing what you are doing to move the vegan cause forwards in your own way, imagine what we’ll see in another generation.
David 💚🌱🐷
David’s thoughts from the week, published every weekend for members only.
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