Freedom

For thousands of years, mankind has fought wars, raided civilizations, built empires, crossed seas for one reason. That reason is Freedom. It's safe to say that everyone desires freedom in one way or another. When freedom is at stake, bounds suddenly become boundless in order to regain that liberty. So what does freedom mean? 

The dictionary definition of freedom includes: the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint, absence of subjection to foreign domination or despotic government, the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved, the state of not being subject to or affected by a particular undesirable thing, or the power of self-determination attributed to the will; the quality of being independent of fate or necessity.

All of these definitions can fall under the ability to make your own choices. 

One of the biggest lessons life has taught me is about choices and freedom. Both of these go hand in hand and are intertwined within the other. Although freedom is the ability to make your own choices, nobody is immune to the consequences that each choice brings.

We are taught as little children that when you walk into the street you risk being hit by a car. So, we make the choice to stay within the boundaries of the safe sidewalk.  Therefore, we are free from a potential injury or death. If a child chose the opposite, and took a stroll onto the road, that freedom is lost. The same concept is applied when you make the choice to have a bad attitude, and yes, that is a conscious choice we make every day. When you decide to have have a bad attitude, your freedom to a happy and productive day is lost. It is important to understand that even our basic human rights and liberties can be confiscated through our choices. It is even more important to understand that we are not entitled to a single freedom until we make the choices necessary to obtain that certain liberty. Even life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness are not handed freely to Americans without a choice to abide by the law and protect ourselves from harm.

Whether there is a universal good or evil, or whether everything is relative, there is still a better choice in every situation. The more often you choose the better choice, the more freedoms you obtain, and the less freedoms you lose.