I wanted to write a substack post at some point with this prompt but I got tired

wanted to remind myself to include this picture

might revisit it at some point

we’ll see

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I know I have a draft of this… let’s check…. here, 2023jul05

freedom is such a funny thing.

what does it mean to be free? i don’t really want to be talking about abstract philosophy, though there’s a strong chance that we’ll end up in that territory. But what I mean is that I want to begin with feelings, with an internal sense, bodily awareness… laying all of that out too will be a bit tedious so lets just tell some stories

the question to begin with is, when have you felt the most free? a few things come to mind. one was the last day of military service. another was the last day of junior college. I have such distinct memories of those days, which i will get back to in a second after listing out other things

school holidays felt fairly good

I remember it was a big deal to me when I was in secondary school and in junior college to find ways to express myself and my identity. having a pierced ear was one thing. Boys aren’t allowed to wear earrings in public school in Singapore, so I would keep a stud in my wallet and put it on after school hours. There were regulations around socks and shoes too.

You technically weren’t supposed to have facial hair, but I kept some anyway. There weren’t really any particular rules about what you wore inside your shirt, so I’d try to look for cool things that could peep out. Shoes had to be something like 70% white.

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substack: interestingness on demand feels related