Post #1: Just finished reading The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Written May 16, 2022 at 10:42 p.m.
What does it mean to really be free? This is such a complex yet simple question that could be answered in a variety of ways by a multitude of different people. Each person you ask could give you a very different answer according to their meaning of “being free”, possibly connecting their answer to their own personal life and unfortunate hardships. The one thing that leaves me constantly deep in thought and incredibly fascinated is the fact that no one will truly and deeply understand anyone’s answer personally.
This is a question I have been repeatedly asking myself during my time on the Grand Isle. It’s quiet here, maybe a little too quiet. To the point where I sometimes feel like all I have to occupy myself with are my incessant thoughts and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing…or a bad thing. Coming from Los Angeles, a place where I feel like it’s common and expected to be overstimulated all the time, it’s a drastic change coming to the Grand Isle. It’s so peaceful and the days feel much longer. When I first got here I had this overwhelming feeling of unnecessary stress and I felt like I should be doing something all the time, which isn’t the case and being here has shown me that. I have the opportunity to be in an incredibly peaceful environment and the freedom to do what I want with my time.
I was laying on the hammock outside yesterday, when it hit me. It was at that exact moment when I realized that this feeling I’m feeling right now is what it feels like to be free…or at least to me. If you were to ask me any other time my answer would probably be different. You could ask me the day after, a week, maybe even in a month and my answer could be different.
The Awakening was a book of such descriptive emotion. I found myself relating to Edna many times as I was reading. There have been many times where I was feeling a myriad of emotions and I just couldn’t find a way to put what I was feeling into words and Chopin did just that. Although I say that I have felt a lot of what Edna was feeling, like I said before, no one including myself can truly understand what she is going through except herself. Emotion is a complex thing and The Awakening showed that for me. Sitting on the beach, touching the sand, and being in the water, along with reading the book, helped me sort through these anxious feelings that overcame me at random times throughout the day. It was such a surreal feeling when a wave of calmness and freedom washed over me. People see the word freedom so differently and my time on the Grand Isle felt like freedom itself. I had the freedom to just be and exist and I don’t think I’ve ever felt that before. My time on the Grand Isle will forever be remembered.