Freedom in the Opposite
By Kaelyn Brown
I am going to share my resonant points that I had from this past week about freedom–
What is the opposite of freedom? What does it mean to you?
To me, it feels like judgment… restriction… close-mindedness.
It feels like judgment in a way where I want to spend time with a new, nice person I just met but when I tell someone I am going to see this person, they project their judgment onto me… those judgments are intrusive, they get into my head and now I don’t feel as free in my decision.
Restriction is the opposite of freedom for me because usually, I associate restriction with things like a stressful work day, an extremely long exam I have to do for school, etc. These things steal my calming, peaceful time away from me, causing me to feel restricted and stressed… not free to do what brings me joy.
Close-mindedness cannot go hand in hand with freedom in my eyes. When we are so close minded, we are unable to openly accept opportunity, be spontaneous, and learn! It feels so freeing for me to be able to learn. To be able to spontaneously go on an adventure, to accept a crazy opportunity. If I was closed off and close minded, I wouldn’t even have given myself the opportunity to have any of this freedom to do these things.
I think we all could benefit from being a little more open minded throughout our days, whether it be in school, in a conversation with a friend, while learning about a subject we don’t usually have an interest in.
Freedom is something I take for granted… Freedom in the small and major aspects of life. How can we show more gratitude for our freedom?
I would like to start by acknowledging what it means to truly be free in my own life.