It is far better for a man to go wrong in freedom than to go right in chains. – Thomas H. Huxley

1 day.
8 hours.
480 minutes.
28,800 seconds.

All in a blink of an eye. And this is just one day for a standard 9-to-5 job, working an average of 8 hours. Multiply this by 5 days in a week, 50 working weeks out of a year. And how many years? Oh, that’s right. A lot.

Ask yourself this: are you really, and I mean really, truly happy in your life? Doing what you are currently doing? Do you justify to yourself that this is just how you will survive? That the work you hate to do is a necessary evil in order to make ends meet? That it is the only surefire way to a steady income, a decent retirement savings plan or a pension, a respectable job as a respectable citizen of the world?

If you say yes, then I’ll believe you. But the moment you put your head to your pillow and a sinking feeling is felt deep within the crevices of your parched soul … you realize that you can lie to me, you can lie to your friends, you can lie to your family, you can lie to your spouse and children, you can lie to your boss and coworkers … but you cannot lie to yourself.

Do not let the fire die within you.

You cannot deceive the one person you need to face day in and day out. The one that looks back at you in the mirror. The one whose eyes barely flicker with the fire that is slowly being left unattended, a fire that is indeed, slowly dying.

Is this an exaggeration?

No. It is not.

It is not only the many folks whom I come across on a daily basis whose sullen and emotionless expressions just screams at me, indicating they are incredibly depressed about their lives, where they are at, what they are doing, why they are doing all this, and how they will never get out, but it is also the worldwide epidemic of status quo adherers.

Do something challenging and unconventional and then you’re scorned at. You’re teased constantly about it. Until the teasing becomes harsher. And more bitter. The more unconventional thing that you’re doing, the worse it can get. Believe me. I understand this.

You are not alone.

But also understand this. Freedom fighters are all around you.

They sit next to you on the train. They serve you at your corner coffee shop. They are the artists whose paintings you’ve come to see at the local art gallery viewing. They are your coworker in the cubicle next to you. They are your backpacking and couchsurfing brother, your tri-lingual sister. They are your next door neighbor. And they can be you.

Freedom can be yours, if you so choose it to be yours.

Fear not failure. Fear not success or abandonment.

If you fear that you’ll fail before you’ve even leapt, you will have never known what your life could have been.

Stop wishing you could have done this. Stop daydreaming about how you would do things all over again, if you could only turn back the hand of time. And please, stop your lottery-winning fantasies. It is all an illusion.

Start living, in the now, right here, at this moment. By doing what you love to do, in a way that is positively impactful in this world we live in, in the community you are an influence in.

Leaping Forward, Resignation In Hand

And that leads me to my decision that today, November 1, 2010, I have decided I will no longer be unhappy in a situation that I very well can prevent and get out of. I may not have had this kind of opportunity to pursue freedom so abundantly and freely if I lived in a different culture, a different country with a different government.

And so with freedom of choice comes accountability of your own life. Your own actions. Your own paths to happiness.

My resignation handed in, I leap forward to new heights and ultimate freedom. And in just a matter of a few weeks, I step away from the corporate troughs of treacherous confinement and into the grassy fields of sweet, sweet freedom.

I, Nina Yau, will finally be free.