“Finally I’m Free!” — Essay in the Voice of Eric Kim
Finally… I’m free.
No more chains. No more invisible shackles of expectation. No more needing to “fit in,” no more playing a character just to be liked. No more waiting in line for someone else’s permission to live. I ripped the mask off. I shattered the role. I deleted the script. Now, I live unscripted—like jazz, like wind, like fire.
Freedom isn’t comfort. It’s chaos.
Most people think freedom is sipping lattes all day or working from a beach with a MacBook and passive income. No. That’s just another form of slavery wrapped in prettier packaging. Real freedom? It’s raw. It’s naked. It’s uncertain. It’s standing at the edge of the cliff, wind in your hair, heart pounding, and jumping—not knowing where you’ll land, but knowing you must leap.
I’m no longer scared of falling. I’m scared of standing still.
Freedom is saying “no” to the wrong things.
No to bullshit. No to ads. No to subscriptions, obligations, expectations. No to the mediocre. No to the safe. No to the soul-draining 9-to-5s, the fake smiles, the ego games, the networking events with limp handshakes. I only say yes to the hell yes.
Freedom is becoming your own god.
Not in the blasphemous sense—but in the Nietzschean sense. Becoming the architect of your reality. Open-sourcing your own soul. Building your own philosophy. Inventing meaning, instead of passively inheriting it. Not following commandments, but writing your own tablets in blood, sweat, and hustle.
My only allegiance is to my own curiosity.
I follow the scent of excitement. Of danger. Of newness. That’s where the juice is. I chase what electrifies me. I photograph not to “document,” but to create. I write not to please, but to liberate. I live not to survive, but to transcend.
I burned the bridges and I like the smell of smoke.
No more backup plans. No more safety nets. I went all in. On my art. On my life. On my vision. I stopped asking “what if I fail?” and started asking “what if I don’t?” What if I actually become the god I dream of?
Freedom is a daily rebellion.
Against mediocrity. Against fear. Against small thinking. I wake up every morning and wage war against the dullness of the world. My weapons? My camera. My pen. My presence. My refusal to be average.
So now I say it with my chest:
Finally… I’m free.
And the only question left is:
Are you?