Words are a way to express our emotions, especially when we are feeling sad, happy, angry, or scared, but misinterpretation can have a significant effect on how a conversation will play out. The conversation can end completely normal and on good terms, or it can become a chaotic argument that seems like there is no end to it. Some people cannot seem to open up their minds and view ideas from another perspective, which can cause miscommunication and misinterpretation of certain words, especially when there are multiple meanings to the word. When words are being misused, it creates an even more difficult conversation of which to be part of. The word freedom is often misused or misunderstood because of the many different ideas it upholds. 

Different people have different opinions about the word freedom. One person could be talking about freedom in a political aspect, social freedom, or religious freedom. No matter who you are talking to, people will always have their own opinion, even if they don’t say it out loud. This relates back to the word freedom because they have the right/freedom to express their opinion without being legally punished, although someone could end up very upset by their opinion. With this being said, your freedom can be stripped away from you if you end up in trouble with the law, or go to prison. How do we know which freedom though? Back to the point that there are so many different meanings and definitions of the word freedom, it makes it difficult to understand which freedoms will be stripped away from you if you wind up in trouble with the law. Some examples of basic rights they lose are using the restroom in private, choosing what they want to eat and when they want to eat, the freedom to live where they want. There are so many freedoms and rights that are taken away when one goes to prison. Furthermore, freedom does have constraints, such as freedoms that pose a threat to society. You cannot kill or violate laws and use the word freedom as an excuse to do so. As a nation, we do have a lot of freedom, but only to a certain extent. 

The word freedom can be misused because there are so many different meanings behind it. If your mind is only set to have one perspective, then you won’t be able to understand someone else’s point of view. I remember a conversation I overheard between two young men that really stuck out to me because of how adamant they were on their opinions. They refused to listen to the other’s perspective because they were close-minded on the matter. They were talking about our rights as a nation and our freedom, but in different ways. One guy, who was in the military, was talking about our freedom of not being controlled by another nation while the other one was talking about freedom in a sense that we have the power to determine action without restraint, such as freedom of speech. This conversation was completely misunderstood because of the different meanings behind the word freedom and the fact that they weren’t understanding each other’s point of view. They both thought they were talking about the same type of freedom, but unfortunately, they weren’t so it ended in an incomprehensible conversation.  

When I hear the word freedom, I think of having the choice to do what I want. I can live where I want, eat what I want, go to school where I want, major in what I want, etc. I have this freedom from the government, but I also have this freedom from my parents. Of course they can tell me what to do, but I do have the freedom to not abide by their rules, although it could end in some major consequences. Being the person that I am, I do follow my parents’ rules and listen to their advice, most of the time, but I do know that I have the freedom to make my own decisions and learn from my mistakes as I get older. Freedom to me is being able to hang out with my friends and just simply having free time to do what I want, but to a certain extent. I can go around breaking laws and doing whatever I want because I have the freedom to, but there will be extensive consequences that I choose not to foresee.  From a social perspective, freedom is being able to do something while abiding by the laws because if freedom was guaranteed, the world would be in pure chaos. 

Overall, the word freedom has so many different meanings behind it and the fact that people are very close-minded makes it hard to have a conversation with them without wanting to rip your hair out. I know I have experienced conversations where I wanted to scream and yell at the person for not considering my point of view or listening to anything I’m saying. Freedom is the ability to to act freely, but it is also doing what you want regardless of what other people might think or the impact it could have on them. Although freedom can be seen as different ideas and meanings, freedom is more of a belief rather than a concept because of how it can relate to so many different ideas.