By Ky C.
Liberation to me, simply means freedom. Freedom to live my life with nothing there to stop me from doing anything and everything that I want to do. It feels like something that I should already have – but it doesn’t work like that.
Sometimes liberation feels so far away and unattainable. It’s very hard to get out of a place when everywhere you look gives you more reason to believe that liberation isn’t possible. I know that’s not true and I won’t let it be.
Beyond freedom, though, liberation means so much more. Simply existing and taking up space that others try so hard to take from me is the basis of my liberation. It is so powerful for me as a non-binary Black youth to say I am still here after all that I’ve been through. At times it’s felt like I wouldn’t make it to where I am, but now that I am here I feel so unimaginably powerful.
The action of defying the “norms” that have been placed upon me, living as my authentic true self, and doing the things that I love the most, is the best feeling in the world.
I go through my life holding these ideas of liberation with me and they honestly keep me afloat more than anything. The action of defying the “norms” that have been placed upon me, living as my authentic true self, and doing the things that I love the most, is the best feeling in the world. This work makes me feel so empowered in all the things that I do.
That feeling is a fleeting feeling, though. I hate that it is. Why can’t it be a constant? The feeling of actually belonging and thriving in a world that was not built for you, when you have multiple identities, seems so daunting at times. almost everyday I see of my people being shot, killed, and/or locked up. It feels like we make all this ‘progress’ – but to where?
I will never stop fighting, my trancestors before me didn’t stop fighting for my liberation
All in all, I find liberation in myself and in those around me. Though it can get discouraging at times, I will never stop fighting. My trancestors before me didn’t stop fighting for my freedom and existence. It is my duty to continue that movement, because they did not go through Hell and back for their legacy to die out. I will not let it. Liberation, in my book, is loving, living, and sharing.