This Is Freedom To Me

I grew up in a society that defines Freedom as not living with parents or any guardian.
Where people's mindsets are crooked and flawed.
Where every developing teenager or adult thinks or feels that living with their parents or under their care is some kind of bondage or slavery.
You often hear most of them say, they wanna be free as if they were in bondage before.
And I don't really blame them because 80% of African parents have made their children feel that way.

So if those children are asked what they really want or what freedom means to them, you will be shocked to know that a great percentage will ignorantly say they wanna live alone and do things on their own without being under the care of an elderly person. They would wanna explore the world at large and oftentimes, it may not always land them in a good or right place because most of those children were not taught what the world really is and what it looks like out there.

To them, freedom is living alone and being on their own without anyone telling them what to do and where to be.
Sad, that is what our children and growing teenager are facing.
But Freedom is more than living alone or doing what you feel should be done without anyone overseeing you or telling you what to do and why you should do those things.

You see if care is not taken, the moment such children are given the lineage to fend for themselves or look after themselves. Or should I say the moment they are being let loose, sorry to say that majority of them will make the worst decision of their life and most of which they will live to regret.

I grew up with well-disciplined parents. My parents aren't so strict but they are very disciplined. There is a wide difference between being strict and being disciplined.
When I was younger, I also didn't want my parents to be making decisions for me, but I didn't know that at that point in my life, I needed their decisions and not mine.
I didn't know there will come a time in my life that they don't make decisions for me anymore. So ignorantly I used to whine whenever they make decisions that I felt I didn't like or wasn't so okay with me.
And I will like to share one of the decisions my parents made for me which I countered and made my own even though it still fell back.

My Story

I was young and naive, perhaps you can put it that way. For some reason, I thought I knew where I wanted to be after my nursery and primary education.
I had a school in mind where I wanted to continue my secondary education.
But my parents, not exactly both but just my dad, never saw it as a good or wise decision so he told me I wasn't going to the school.
He tried all he could to convince me to change my mind and accept the school he wanted for me, but I had already made up my mind and it felt like it was since from birth 😂
So since my dad couldn't change my mind, he was left with no other option but to find other means, not knowing I was a little smart too even as a young girl.

My dad told me that since I didn't wanna listen to him that I should go ahead and apply for the school of my choice and his as well when I am writing my entrance examination.
In my country, a child is given two options of applying to two different schools of his or her choice and then leave it for the government or ministry of education to decide which school their activity or performance in the entrance examination fits.
But if for any reason the child included only one school and not two then the ministry will have no other option but to give the child that particular school he or she applied to.
Perhaps my dad wasn't aware of this or maybe he was but didn't just think I will be so naughty to apply to only one school and which was the school I wanted.

I did exactly what I said, I only applied for the school I had long wished to go to and not my dad's choice of school. But they had believed I applied for the two schools and something told me that if I did, I would have been given the school my dad wanted for me since it was an all-girls school.
After the examination results came out, I passed very well, and guess what? I was given the school of my choice, I mean why wouldn't they give me it? When it was only one school I applied for 😁
I told my dad about it, he wasn't happy but he had no choice but to send me there.

As if my dad knew I did something cause he was certain I won't be given the school I wanted but surprisingly to him I was, so he had to ask me what I did. He figured out I didn't apply for two schools so he told me that I will only go to the school I chose for one whole session and then for the next session, I will have to transfer to the all-girls school he wanted me to apply to initially.
So to cut the whole story short, I was later transferred to the all-girls school and I only lasted for one whole session in the school of my choice.
But do you know the funny truth about this whole thing? The school my dad later sent me to became my best school ever, I later found out how great the school is compared to the one I wanted.
The school had good values and the teachings there were top-notch, so you see my parent's decision and choice of school turned out to be the best for me.

My decision at that point in my life wasn't the best for me but my parents. So you see that most times, we are given the freedom to make decisions and choices but in the long run, some of them are not always the right ones or the perfect ones for that particular point in time.

So if you ask me what freedom is or means to me, it is knowing what to do at a particular time and doing the right thing
Freedom to me is making the right decisions and choices even when under the care of people.
Freedom isn't all about living alone or doing what you feel like doing because no one is rebuking you or scolding you but it is knowing how well you use your free will to better your life and not ruin it.

I thank God for my parents, they might not be half as strict as other parents around the world but they do know what discipline is and what it means to train up a child in a proper way and still leave them to make their choices and not cage them as if they are slaves.

I really wanna plead to all parents out there, not to make the mistake of chaining or caging their children all in the name of being strict or training them well. Sorry to say that whenever such a child gets to taste what freedom or free will truly is, he or she might become very wild thereby misusing the freedom given to him or her and there is nothing the parents would do to stop them at that point except the Lord intervenes and prayer is involved.

I am most glad to share my experience and thoughts on what freedom means to me.
I don't wanna believe that living with my parents is bondage even though most times I feel I wanna experience the world on my own and not under their care but also I wouldn't want to misuse the privilege of doing so cause Freedom is a powerful tool that can either make a person or ruin a person.
That's why it's free will. You decide what you wanna do with your freedom.

I wanna use this opportunity to thank @JonicaBradley  for interesting and thought-provoking prompts.
Thank you for unleashing my hunger to write for this week after feeling so down for some days now. I truly appreciate this and I will look forward to more prompts from you.

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@zellypearl