Most people acknowledge freedom as the ability to have control. As students, we spend our childhood counting down the days to freedom. A driver’s license, turning eighteen, and graduation are widely known as the gateways to independence. Yet, in the midst of these milestones, I’ve noticed the opposite effect. The more freedom I gain, the more I quietly fall into the imprisonment of a life numb to change.

Growing up, schedules and directions from school or parents served as mandatory guidance that opposed the stereotypical idea of freedom. However, when life is structured, we are constantly pushed into new environments that facilitate growth. Freedom comes from a lack of external structure, but it introduces the ability to design life around comfort. Without realizing it, we begin to repeat the same routines and repetitive schedules.

Personally, already having this freedom for a substantial period of time, making a change in my comfortable habits has presented itself as the hardest challenge I have met as an upcoming adult. Never had I noticed the power of saying “no.” As a kid, “no” could easily be ignored, but as an adult, “no” becomes definitive. It carries weight.

Approaching adulthood, I’ve realized that freedom is not automatically fulfilling. It doesn’t always lead to happiness. It doesn’t always lead to meaningful experiences. More often, it provides a void to escape discomfort entirely. No one is forcing change upon us, so we begin to choose what is easiest and what feels safe. Over a short period of time, the freedom I once craved slowly turned into an inability to adapt. When stuck in the same routines of comfort, freedom quickly establishes itself as imprisonment.

As a senior, my advice to younger students is to grasp this concept before they reach these milestones of freedom. Once you hit adulthood, the life you live becomes the life you repeatedly choose. And while you still have the chance, take advantage of structure, take advantage of demands, let routines break. Resist the hidden burden of freedom and refuse to let comfort become the boundary of your life.