New Year’s Cheese

January 2, 2013 at 6:00 am · Filed under stories and tagged: Cheese, Food, Holidays, New Year, New Years Resolution, Swiss cheese, Veganism

< by Anna >

I am, in a word, crap at New Year’s Resolutions. Bold proclamations of eating healthier and exercising every morning are met with buffalo wings and the snooze button well before the Ides of January. But some people have actual stick-to-it-ness and do that which they have resolved.

It was December 31, 2007, and one of my roommates had decided to make the leap from vegetarian to vegan in 2008. She already had vegan-y tendencies, but was committed to taking the final, hardest step: the giving up of divine milk solids, a.k.a. cheese. We had gone to the Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Co. a few nights before for some blissfully gut-busting pizza pot pies and she got to say some parting words to melted mozzarella.

We had a party that New Year’s Eve. Our friends were mingling in the kitchen, dumping snow in the punch bowl, and watching the clock inch toward midnight. There were snacks out on the counter but, in honor of the Vegan Resolution, we pulled an unopened wedge of Swiss cheese out of the refrigerator. This was her last chance.

She tore open the plastic wrapping and chomped away. You have never seen someone eat cheese with such purpose, such savory abandon. We cheered her on as the rest of the room started erupted in “10… 9… 8…”

She slammed the gnawed triangle down on the countertop at “…1… Happy New Year!” There were kisses and high-fives and wiping of cheese crumbs from mouths.

Five years later, she is still animal product free. I admire her resolve and dedication to following a diet she believes in. I’d like to think I’d be able to pull something like that off, but I’m honestly not sure I could. Until then, bring on the cheese.

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