Hello All,
It's been so long since I've been here. Hmmm...Suppose that warrants a new introduction, which will conveniently lead to the subject of my post: Ahh the Freedom.
I am twenty years old, with my twenty-one run fast approaching. I will be getting my B.S. degree in engineering at the end of next spring (i.e. I am a junior). I am also pursuing a pre-med option so that I can attend both medical school and graduate school in a joint, eight year long program. At my university, I have been apart of numerous organizations, which have been mostly multicultural and academic related. I also live alone in my own apartment. I?ve tried the whole roommate situation and concluded that ?I don?t care who you are, I can?t live with you.? In fact I?m so convinced of this fact, that I?m half expecting that when/if I get married, my husband and I will have separate houses. Another great fact about me, I have both my nose and eyebrow pierced, yet I still manage to be an intelligent person (most of the time). Apparently this is a strange phenomenon to a great number of people.
Okay, so the point of my introduction? Last three day weekend, I visited my grandparents and relatives who happened to be Jehovah?s Witnesses. I stopped attending meetings and having affiliation with the society/org about six to eight years ago (somewhere from junior high to freshman/sophomore year of high school). While this is definitely in the past, I still find myself thinking about it from time to time and I am amazed. I look at all the ?rules? I?ve broken: going to college; piercing my face; setting goals for the future; going through my drinking/wild period; saying ?God Bless You? after someone sneezes; celebrating my birthday; going sporadically to different churches; celebrating holidays (I?ve discovered Halloween is one of my favorites!); learning and loving other people?s culture and religions; etc. The list is wonderfully long!
My point: while Dubs see this as breaking the rules, I see this as freedom! It actually didn?t dawn on me until I went to church last Sunday. Mind you, I didn?t go to your typical church. It was a Universalist Unitarian church. I went more out of curiosity than anything. But while I was listening to the sermon, I realized that I used to spend so much time trying to use my brain to fit the society/org?s rules when all along I could have been using it to help and include people. What an incredible difference! Perhaps, this is one of my most enjoyed freedoms!
So my question to all: What freedom that would have previously been considered ?breaking the rules?, do you enjoy and treasure now?