This week’s photo challenge theme is Symbol. For me the ultimate symbol of freedom is a bird flying high in the skies. I always think of this most when I’m at the beach, there is a gusty, slightly salty breeze, the hot sun reflects off the sand, the waves crash down on the shore, and the seagulls are soaring up above. Then you can fill your lungs with fresh sea air and feel free from all the stresses of daily life!

In German class we were talking about freedom in a few lessons, for example as it related to East and West Berlin, and to the communist bloc. Our German teacher always takes the more controversial side of the argument so that we can practice our German in discussion, and said that after the wall fell, unemployment rose in former East Germany, so what was so great about the wall falling and the reunification? Weren’t people better off before? People answered that the important thing was freedom, that now people had the choice where to live, what to buy, what to learn, freedom of speech. Nobody likes to be dictated to, to have their own free will taken away. Somehow, it is universally important to people to have freedom.