For some reason, every time I tell people that I maintain my vegetarian lifestyle while in college, they gasp as if doing so is impossible. People always either respond with "how do you afford to be a vegetarian?" or "how do you find options?"

To be honest, when I first became a vegetarian I had some of these same thoughts. Going into college with a dietary restriction, whatever it may be, may seem like a little bit of a challenge. The options may seem limited, but I can assure you that they are not.

On-campus guide: Most freshman, at whatever university they attend, purchase the campus meal plan for convenience. For someone with a dietary restriction, it can be nerve wracking to purchase a meal plan; not being sure of whether or not they will have options to satisfy your needs.

Personally, at first, I was unsure of whether or not my Penn State campus meal plan would have vegetarian options, but after a little bit of research I found that I was completely wrong.

Here are some sample dining hall menus from Penn State University, West Virginia University, and Indiana University:

As you can see, the dining hall menus make it easy to navigate through their menu by either separating the vegetarian options completely, like Indiana University does, or by making a key with symbols, like Penn State does. Either way, these schools are providing a ton of vegetarian friendly options for their students.

Grocery shopping guide: Vegetarian or not, us college students are all on a budget. A lot of people are under the false assumption that being a vegetarian or a vegan automatically entails an expensive diet.

The key to a vegetarian's heart: rice, beans, oatmeal, frozen fruits, a ton of veggies, peanut butter, hummus, and bread. These foods are good, healthy, and cheap. Stocking up on rice and beans is always an essential part of my grocery shop, as well as a ton of frozen fruits and vegetables to prevent them going bad and saving yourself multiple trips to the store.

Meal delivery services: Last, but certainly not least, are the holy grail of meal delivery services, such as HelloFresh, PurpleCarrot, Green Chef, and Blue Apron. This completely changed my life in college.

Essentially, what these companies do, is package you up three meals for the week, and most companies offer a vegetarian version. They send you a box with uncooked and fresh ingredients, with step-by-step instructions on how to cook these meals.

The meals are always so unique and nothing that I would ever think to cook up in my apartment. These services taught me how easy it is to get creative, while still maintaining my vegetarian lifestyle.

Being a vegetarian in college is not as hard as you think. It's actually really fun, and really rewarding. If you have any sort of dietary restriction, do not give up right away just because you think it will be difficult in college. Explore your options because there are always amazing alternatives.