My story of freedom.

I have been invited to write about freedom. Should I write about my life? All my young adult years I decided to live it freely. I grew up in a family where the prevailing regime was military style, and not because my father was a military man but because rules and discipline of the household was very strict.

In a way I don't think anything he did was with evil intentions, he just liked to feel the power and that we all obeyed him, including my mother. He was a protective father but didn't want to have too much responsibility and left it all to my mother.

But I have to thank God that he allowed me to have this kind of upbringing, with my personality still not very well defined and until I was liberated. So let me tell you about this thing that happened to me just when I finished my nursing career.

I went to work in another state. The health authorities of another state paid us graduates who accepted half a normal salary so that when we finished our studies we would fulfill a 1 year health contract. I accepted it, first because they paid me and second because I would be going away from home to be free.

I left and then I started working, earning my money, making my own decisions, paying my expenses, buying my food, washing, ironing and all that living away from home entails.

I liked it. I didn't want to live as a slave to other people's thoughts anymore and of course everything came at a price.

After living 18 months alone without family I had to return home for things and events that required me to come back. But I was no longer the same, what had to happen happened, I could no longer be the same and blindly abide by my father's impositions and life became different.

My father no longer had power over me. I worked, I supported my home, and I had to work as much as I needed to meet all my needs. After a few months I bought my first car and remained free.

I no longer cared whether my father liked my life or not. He decided to buy a house in the country and wanted to take my mother with him and she did not accept. She stayed with us and, in her own way, she also got to know a little bit of life without my father's authority.

Just when I turned 18 years old I felt that now I could start to be a free woman and since then I lived as many adventures as I could. I made as many decisions as roads I had to cross.

I traveled many roads, the ones I never knew, towns and cities. I learned to relate to many people, it cost me, because in most of my life I was a very introverted girl. How else was I supposed to act? My father taught me not to have friends, while he had all the friends in the world. He taught me not to talk to anyone while he talked to everyone wherever he went. He taught me not to lie while he lied to everyone in front of his children.

All of this was in my head like a volcano wanting to erupt. It was impossible for friendship not to exist if I met good people, and I still keep them as my family of life.

It was very, very hard for me to talk to people outside the hospital, outside the patients. And this was one of the things that taught me to engage in conversation with strangers. Yes, working with patients helped me to have confidence in myself, to have confidence in others. To have a lot of friends, but I still lacked the ability to release the pressure I feel when I'm in crowds. I isolate myself, I feel trapped among people who are like monsters, but even that I was learning to control.

My life was full of bad decisions, worse decisions and good and extraordinary decisions. I learned not to complain about what I did wrong. I learned to move forward even when mistakes told me I was going wrong, but I had to assume my responsibilities for what I had done and moving forward was the right thing to do.

I learned that life is full of challenges and that, depending on our vision of the future, I would take my own path to follow.

All my good, bad and regular decisions led me to be who I am today. An extremely strong woman, with a new passion which is to write everything that comes out of my mind. I became a woman who learned to be free with responsibilities and open to changes, I learned to be grateful for everything, every episode I lived, I learned to be happy in my own way.

I learned to be free under many terms and also under many restrictions. Because freedom also has its limits, there are barriers to bear, but in freedom you can live better with yourself and with others.

That's why I love free writing. I can write and put down on paper my life and then go back to read and find part of my thoughts and part of my life written on paper.

I was invited to write about freedom by @heartbeat1515 and participate in the @JonicaBradley challenge and here I am with part of my life, free for everyone to read.