I suppose if we ask different persons for a definition of freedom, we will get many different versions.
A teenager may say ‘freedom to party or to come and go / do as I please’. A young adult may say" ‘freedom to decide my future.’ A senior citizen may say ‘freedom to just be’.
A dear friend – young man from China – whom I met while working for a MNC in Singapore many years ago, and since moved to the USA for work - He told me that he did not see the much publicised freedom in the USA. To him, freedom in the US was best described as being able to drive from the East coast to the West coast without being stopped for border clearance etc.
A refreshing point of view which puts the over-hyped ‘freedom’ into a wider perspective.
For me, freedom is the freedom to make my own decisions and to face the consequences myself. I never celebrated my 21st birthday the way many of my peers did, with the iconic pendant key as the mark of maturity or rite of passage.
I never really got a chance to meet my definition of freedom till I left Singapore for the US at age of 26.
That rite of passage will fill many pages so I leave it for another time.
What’s your definition of freedom?
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