Are we born free?

 

A few years ago, I was on a train from Birmingham to Leeds, it was around 5:30, surprisingly not particularly busy for rush hour, There were enough seats and it was as chilled a vibe as could be for a rush hour service, across the aisle and a seat in front of me were a bunch of young people laughing and drinking and generally having a good time not in an obnoxious way, but just with enough merriment for the other passengers to notice how much fun they were having.

I would say they were university students, they were about that age and not the usual piss heads that you would expect from, well me when I was that age.

A woman sat across the aisle from them leaned across and asked them “what are you celebrating” one of the group, a big lad in a rugby shirt, gulped down the swig of canned G&T and without missing a beat replied “Just being young”.

To this day, I have not heard a more perfect answer to a question, why shouldn't you celebrate being young? Youth is the greatest gift we could ever squander, if you don't celebrate it, you could wake up one morning surrounded by demanding kids, in a house you have poured every penny you have into, bored, thirty, and oblivious to the life you have wasted worrying about things that never in the end happened, and troubled by the things you never saw coming, and that's if you're lucky.

So what has this got to do with freedom? Has it got anything to do with freedom or am I just here complaining that my own life didn't turn out the way I wanted it to? No, you see, we operate under the illusion that we are all created equal and free, when in actual fact we have to earn our freedom, but no one tells you that's what you have to do, no one tells you that when you could just buy a house, that doing so meant you hand over freedom and some autonomy for the rest of the mortgage term, you bought a home to live in and eventually it becomes a prison filled with IKEA furniture, and photographs of a young you that felt happy once in a while, now, you just hope that you can have one day at work without wanting to tell your boss to go fuck himself, and that the overtime doesn't dry up.

Adulthood is a trap, and we never see it coming, they get you when you're young, you start school enthusiastic and ready to learn, if you have kids you will know that the first day of school is like Christmas morning but without the paper everywhere and the constant nagging of what your credit card statement is going to look like in January, when children start school they go into it with the spirit that everyone should adopt when it comes to learning, unfortunately, there are those teachers who having just had six weeks of not having to deal with other peoples shitty parenting, are now responsible for our little angels, who according to us the parents, do nothing wrong, it must be someone else making them misbehave, yeah, it was another kid who made Johnny see if the class hamster bounces, and on top of that, they have a house they are tied to so they can never stand up mid class and yell “YOU DUMB LITTLE SHITS ARE NEVER GOING TO AMOUNT TO ANYTHING ANYWAY, I'M WASTING MY TIME, FUCK YOU, FUCK YOUR PARENTS, AND FUCK THE HEAD TEACHER I'M OUT”.

We tie ourselves to situations in the hope that it will bring us joy and happiness, what it brings is fear and worry, we tie ourselves to student debt, in the hope that our future will be better, we tie ourselves to a mortgage in the hope we will have something to pass on to our kids, we tie ourselves to a career in the hope of financial security, in actual fact we end up paying for a degree we didn't need for our job, a house that will end up paying for our care as we get old, and a career that leaves us unfulfilled, and ready to jump out of our fluorescent lit cubicle, and staple your letter of resignation to your bosses fat head, but you can't, you have responsibilities, you have a family, you have to do the right thing, so you hope and prey that you have enough money to have a nice holiday, so you book two weeks in Spain, and sit by a pool surrounded by other shell shocked lobster shaded out of shape people form back home and complain that the weather is too hot.

We spend so much time trying to get the lifestyle we think we want we don't even realise that we have painted ourselfs int a corner of slavery, we imprison ourselfs within the walls of our own lives, we work and work until we realise its too late, suddenly you're middle aged, everything hurts, you put your back out opening a bottle of milk, when you get up out of a chair everyone knows because you make a noise that doesn't sound out of place at a weight lifting competition, and you know that there is no going back, your youth is done, all you have to look forward to is old age, and not having to go to that horrible job any more, the kids are starting to leave home, the mortgage is paid, and you can finally start to enjoy the fruits of your labor, but all you want to do at this point is go to bed at half eight, so that you don't start wondering what the hell happened to your dreams and aspirations.

Freedom is something you have to work for, not in a 9to5 way, you have to decide what you really want from life, if a steady job, mortgage, two weeks in Benidorm is what you truly desire then more power to you, I wish you the best and I won't judge you, but if you want to be truly free, if you want to travel the world in an old camper van, or go to India to study Yoga and meditation, you better not buy a house.

So how do you achieve freedom? Its a case of when you know tell me, but I do know one thing, working 50 years in a job you hate ain't it chief, if you are young and you're reading this, be like the kids on the train, celebrate being young, enjoy yourself, no, enjoy being you, enjoy all the world has to offer, enjoy all that your youth has to offer, make mistakes, never be afraid to make a fool of yourself, drink too much, sleep too little, run, dance and make love, give yourself the gift of nostalgia, make memories that will get you through a boring Tuesday, and don't regret a single memory, we regret the things we didn't do, no one wishes they had less fun in life, if you can't find true freedom, at least have a real good jailbreak once in a while and do something crazy, trust me, you won't regret it.

Photo by Dương Nhân: https://www.pexels.com/photo/friendship-goal-12987180/