Feel the Beat!

Freedom..

Freedom. What is freedom? It could mean lots of things to me. Maybe dancing on a huge stage with no one else around to watch me. Singing at the top of my lungs in an empty room. Laughing with my friends about the weirdest, most random things. Being able to cry when I need to. Sure, those things make me feel free, because I can express myself in any way I feel. I don’t have people telling me what I can and can’t do; I just do what makes me happy. And that’s what freedom is to me: Being able to express myself without worrying about being judged or told the difference between right and wrong. Sometimes it honestly feels like we don’t have so much freedom. Things like bed time curfews, computer/video game playing time, who we can date, who we can’t date, and places where we can go are just a tiny, tiny list of things that take us away from our freedom. But if you think about it, you don’t necessarily have to follow these rules. Technically, you don’t have to go to school. No one is physically forcing you into the car and forcing you to walk up the stairs to your classroom. But we all know that if we even attempt to skip school, we will suffer severe consequences, not only from teachers, but from parents too. Why do kids feel the need to be free? Maybe its because they feel they don’t have enough freedom, so they go off and do whatever they feel like doing and rebel and suddenly become druggies or alcoholics, or even pregnant. Its sad to see what has happened to kids in society these days, but the reality is, maybe we need more freedom. But then again, if kids had too much freedom, they would probably still do whatever they wanted to do, making them end up in a bad situation. So I guess it all comes out to balancing your freedom and those rules that you must follow. All I’m saying is we can’t have too much freedom, or things can get out of hand. I personally like having rules, because they keep me under control. If I didn’t have that self-control, I would probably be in a huge mess by now. So back to the question: What is freedom to me? I had previously said that it is a way to express yourself without being judged or knowing what was right and wrong, and I still believe that, but along with freedom comes responsibility. Which leads to the next question: How does freedom affect you as a blogger? While blogging we express ourselves, specifically about our passion. Now technically, according to the First Amendment, we have the right to freedom of speech IF we believe in something. But if we started swearing and insulting other people or their ideas, is that still following that rule? Although you might think differently about something than someone else, you shouldn’t have the right to put them down. Instead, you should be open to opinions and, if not accept their point of view, at least understand why they think that way. The truth is, you shouldn’t be going around bashing other people’s blogs; it’s not right. If you have something to say, sure go ahead and say it, but you must say it (or type it) in a way that won’t be misunderstood and is written as an opinion. Because that’s what it is, an opinion, nothing more than that. Even though you believe strongly in something does not mean it’s factual, because there is more than one way of perceiving it other than yours. Sometimes you just have to be open to what other people have to say, and maybe you’ll be able to understand and agree with them. So while we are blogging, just remember that we can say what we feel and believe, but we cannot go overboard with it, because that’s when you get in trouble and altogether banned from the site. And if that happened to me, I know I would be quite disappointed because I think that the Edublogs are a great experience that I wouldn’t want to miss out on. So be careful with the things you say on here, because the end results may not be so pretty.