Be Careful What You Call Freedom

Choosing it can lead to disaster.

The locker door closed with a hollow sound that rang all the way down the long white hall. There was no one there but me.

Putting the locker key in my pocket, I walked away to spend the next few hours wondering how I had ended up completely alone at 1:00 in the morning in an airport, waiting for the first flight out.

My rush for freedom and adventure had all ended badly, and I was leaving with nothing more than what I grabbed as I was pushed out the door.

It wasn’t that bad. It could have been worse. After all, I was at the Hawaiian airport and had time to take the bus to the beach, watch the waves for a few hours, and feel what it felt like to be homeless.

But I knew it wasn’t what the truly homeless felt because I had friends waiting for me at home.

So when I got off the plane, leaving everything I owned behind, someone was waiting for me to give me a home until another friend found me a place I could rent.

More friends helped, and slowly—very slowly—I made my way back from where I had put myself. Where I ended up was a result of my narrow-minded, very unwise choices that put me in such a precarious situation.