What it feels like to be free

I realise now what people have been telling me all along. The best thing about childhood and youth is the license to be carefree and bold. The courage to venture into the unknown; completely oblivious to reason and judgement. I used to think that being a teen was the pits. What sort of freedom can you expect when you're inundated with school, homework, tuition and the lot? I truly felt my high school education was a painful rite of passage. One that I had to grit my teeth and pull through in order to get to the other side - The start of the rest of my life. When I finished my final SPM paper, (I believe it was Economics); it was like gaining consciousness after a coma. A 17 year coma.

The exhilaration I felt when I contemplated all that lay before me is incomparable to any other feeling I've had since. It was effervescent like and let me in a state of giddy pleasure and thrill. My life truly began after high school.

The four months spent waiting for my results were nothing short of blissful. I had no cares or worries in the world. My days began at 10 am when I awoke and everything was open to me. I could have gone to the beach, or read a book, or go hiking or hit the mall or catch a movie or have breakfast and then crawl back to bed. My parents never got on my case to start researching college courses or get a job. They knew that it was important for me to relax and enjoy after months of exam stress and worry.They let me be. And that, is what it feels like to be free.