Was it a one-time sudden realization, a nagging feeling you couldn't get rid of, or a back-and-forth process?
For me, it was 5 or so years of back-and-forth waffling between vegan and "reducitarian/VAH" before a very strong dose of magic mushrooms a few years ago gave me a stern kick in the ass about my own ethics and hypocrisy, which is how I finally stayed vegan. The same trip was the beginning of my political radicalization left as well.
Mine was really fucking dull
I was a vegetarian until I went to prison, then when they handed me the form for meal preferences and shit i was about to mark myself down as vegetarian but thought "do I trust the prison service to store dairy products properly?"
Then marked myself down as vegan
When I got out i just kept it going
haha, you say it's dull, but i bet that story is waaaay less vanilla than most
Holy shit, I get teased for being vegan by my fucking in-laws. Can't imagine what it's like being a vegan in prison.
not too bad tbh, it helped that i was pretty hench
i am english though, our prisons aren't as fucked as american ones