Canadians often boast about the luxury of living in a free society. Often when speaking with individuals from warmer climates we might say, "Sure the weather is nice where you live but you don't have the same freedom that Canadians have." This may be a true statement but I know that I experience limitations on my own freedom which include: the sacrifices I have to incur to make my girlfriend happy, the time in taking care of two small dogs, having to wear a seatbelt while I drive, and the high insurance premiums that must be paid in order to operate my car. This paper will discuss the voluntary and involuntary restrictions that I experience and how I am influenced by them.
This past Christmas I went out to Hines Creek to spend a couple of days with my girlfriend's family. This was by no means something that I freely chose. A close friend of mine had a Christmas party planned for the same weekend that my girl friend wanted to visit her parents. I was very excited about attending my friend's party because the year before I had attended his annual Christmas party and had a great time. When I announced to my girl friend that this party was taking place she quickly reminded me that this was the same week end she planned to visit her parents. If I valued freedom over my relationship with my girl friend I would have told her that I was not going to spend a boring weekend with her parents and that I was going to have a great time at my friend's party. We had a very lively "discussion" about what choices were going to be made for that particular weekend. I quickly discovered that there was going to be some consequences for me skipping out on her parents. The long and the short of our conversation was that I had to go to her parent's home. I had voluntarily restricted my freedom to ensure that my relationship with my girl friend was still intact.
My two dogs also affect my freedom. They do this by making me have to revolve my daily schedule around them.