Freedom
Essay
What is freedom? The official meaning to it, according to Dictionary.com, is “The state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint”, but is it really that easy to define such a complex word? I don’t think so. Freedom is probably not even the same thing to you as it is to me.
Freedom to me is not being locked [up], and I mean this two ways.
The first way is the literal not being locked up behind locked doors in a prison, facility or even closed in a home. It’s being free to see the world outside four brick walls and a yard. It’s being able to go outside when you feel like you’re suffocating inside, without guard(ian)s dragging your butt back inside because you “had your outside time earlier” that day.
The other way is not to be locked to something, whether it’s to an image, an expectation, a style or something similar. At least for me, I’ve always been the “proper” kid, the “angel” or the “smart” kid, and although none of these are bad things, I’ve always felt trapped in these images. If I don’t do well in school, I’ve not only disappointed myself but people’s ideas of me. I can’t show up to school in a bright, neon pink dress, because that’s not me, at least not what people would expect of me. I can’t do some things because it’s not me. I am expected to do some things because that’s me.
Freedom to me is being able to voice my opinions. It’s being able to say what I mean, without having to fear for my own safety for doing so. It’s being able to stand up when I think something is wrong, but also cheer for what I think is right. It’s being allowed, and even encouraged to have an opinion of my own, even if the majority, including authority, disagrees with it.
Freedom to me is being allowed to be me. It’s being able to be 100% genuinely myself, even if it’s just a “me” I would like to try out for a day. I should still be able to be me. It’s being free to explore who I am as a person and who I want to be, without anybody judging me, telling me it’s a bad idea.
Freedom to me is being permitted to make my own mistakes. It’s being able to fail big time, and being able to learn from those mistakes. Maybe I will get further by making that mistake, maybe I’ll never get to where I was. Failing and making my own mistakes can result in giving me a whole new insight and a whole new understanding of something I might never have known without it, but I will never know that unless I give it a try and have the freedom to try it.
Freedom to me is letting feelings show and not having to hide behind an emotionless mask. I, as well as everybody else in this world, can feel happy, sad, angry, frustrated and a whole other variety of emotions. Emotions that can go to the extreme sometimes for everybody, but you’re still expected to keep calm and seem “put together” for the outside world. Feelings are a natural human reaction to life’s events, and I think it’s not only liberating, but also necessary for a person to be free to express their feelings. I know at least for me, it would be torture to always have to hide my emotions.
Freedom is having choices. Freedom is spending my time the way I want to. Freedom is exploring incredible places. Freedom is having a life worth living.