My Summer with an Albino

During high school,  I worked as a lifeguard at the local city pool.  While working there I was fascinated by a young man.  He was older and in college...  no this not a crush.  I was seduced by curiosity.  He looked like an albino...with his pale white skin, platinum blond hair, and aquamarine blue eyes.  The albino was thin,very athletic, and had the intelligence that you would expect from an University of Michigan undergrad.  He was also a vegan.

Since it was the mid 1990's, vegan was not an everyday term like it is today. I looked forward to having the same lunch break as him.  We both packed our own lunches and ate together while I drilled him about being a vegan. He explained to me that his diet consisted of no animal products.  I would watch him consume exotic nuts like soy and brazilian...up until this point the only nuts I knew about were Planter's peanuts and the special jar of cashews my father received as a gift during the holidays.  One time, I thought I would totally stump the albino by asking him about honey.  That technically is not an animal product, right?  He maintained that he does not eat honey because it comes from a living thing and ate agave nectar instead. (My thoughts...."Agave nectar. What? Weird!")

While the albino was eating nuts, fresh fruit, veggies and protein packed grains that I could not pronounce I was eating my brown bag staples.  This was packaged low fat turkey, light Wonder bread, prepackaged baby carrots and a piece of fruit.  He would educate me about how bad eating processed and packaged foods was for the body and the environmental consequences of animal farming.  At this point in my life, I had already removed beef and pork from my diet.  How could he ask more from me!  I thought he was just going through a crazy college kid phase.

Fast forward fifteen years...while adding walnuts and agave nectar to my morning oatmeal, I remembered the albino.  He had not crossed my mind in over decade.  I had realized that over time I had become more like him than I ever thought I would. Weird!

Success of the Day: Remembering to not judge others because one day you may become like them

Pink Inspiration: The pink tint of the albino's skin that peeked out from beneath the thick layer of chemical free titanium dioxide sunscreen on his face