given his last name and has been there for me since birth), I
began to realize that no one in the town or school knew me. I
tried to make new friends, often not talking about where I
came from. Some of these people were close friends of mine
through high school and are still today.
These friends are probably one of the biggest reasons I
decided to leave and join the Marines. There I really began to
shape my views on freedom. For the first three months they
took everything away. I couldn't talk, walk, eat or sleep
without permission. We were all confined to the areas we were
told to go and you were never alone. Yet, for me who grew up
with nothing and had always felt separated from everyone
else, this was the first time I felt a sense of unity. You see it
was no longer just me who had nothing, it was everyone
around me. We were all there facing the same problems. This
is when I realized that now I’m a part of something bigger
than myself, that my own freedom is not the only thing
important. I can no longer live my life as an individual but as a
part of a unit to help make it possible for everyone to have the
same freedoms I have. The next four years I saw the worst
places this world can offer and that's when I began to see what
freedom really was. I also saw how everyone in my own