Being your own.

Being independent is an interesting thing. It's not about making your own decisions really. It's about furthering your own life. So many of my friends talk about how excited they are to graduate so they can finally do what they want instead of being ordered around by their parents. But when I ask them what they are going to do, exactly, they have no answer. Apparently they are just going to sit around in their new free life and do a whole lot of nothing.

I'm excited to graduate too, of course, but not so I can just wave goodbye to my parents in the rearview mirror. I'm excited to get out there and do something with my life! College and a career and my own family are waiting for me and I can't wait to grab them! Isn't that what independence is? Getting somewhere?

There are always people who "can do what they want". And they can. Sometimes doing drugs is what they want so they go get them, or other people's stuff is what they want so they go steal it. And they do, and they get what they want. They're making their own decisions. But what they don't realize is that by doing what they want, sometimes they get things that they don't want, too. A meth addict sitting in rehab did what he wanted, but now he's stuck there and has to make a long, hard trip back. He made all his own decisions, but he's not independent.

We all want to make our own decisions, and we all can. But we all want to be independent as well, and it may not always be the same thing.