"Freedom"

Disadvantage (noun): an unfavorable circumstance or condition that reduces the chances of success or effectiveness.

Not many people that know me would describe me as disadvantaged. In fact, they may say I am being indulgent in claiming so. I am incredibly fortunate in my financial support and my ability to achieve what I set my mind to. Whether this is for material reasons, or because I’m too stubborn to give up makes no matter.
Yet, ‘freedom’ is an incredibly relative term. And while I have had the constant freedom in my life to attempt to make my own dreams a reality, I have often times not been granted the freedom of state in order to achieve just that.

I was born on a small rock in the Caribbean Sea. It’s not much, but it’s home. Many of my peers were born on bigger rocks. My rock has a name that does not hold much weight behind it: Trinidad. Trinidad & Tobago, while a beautiful tropical isle, does not hold much influence in the geopolitical arena. Whereas my counterparts born on the bigger rocks that go by the names The United States of American, or The United Kingdom, or even Australia – these bigger rocks that seem more ‘useful’ in the eye of global politics – these people are lucky. These people have a freedom I will never know.

In my life and years of traveling no word has ever filled me with such dread as the word “visa”. Oftentimes I forget that I am disadvantaged. That because of where I was born and who I am I have to jump through extra hoops and pay extra money to do what my American or English or Australian friends can do without a second thought.

Once upon a time this wonderful earth of ours was one big rock. As time passed and natural phenomenon occurred this rock split into separate continents and these continents into individual countries. And each country is wonderfully and uniquely beautiful. It wasn’t until people came along and made our world a political mayhem that it became so unrealistically difficult to share in the earth we all call our home.

Because I was born on a smaller rock, because my little blue book is not as blue as an American’s or red like a Brit’s, because my little home does not have much to offer on a global and fiscal political scale these countries that I hope to visit one day have no reason to let me in. Not because I want to learn from them, not because I want to see their home and commit it to memory, not because I grow every day by experiencing new cultures and I hope I can offer the same to anyone I meet. No, I can’t offer political advantage, my country is not a powerhouse of trade so globally, most doors are shut to me.

Yes, I can apply to be granted the permission to enter a country once I make a good case and prove that I have the funds to make it worth their while. Yes, I am lucky enough that I can, and do, do this successfully. But I am a citizen of this earth just like anyone else. We should all be granted the same freedoms. What is this world if not all of ours to discover?

If we can, we should. And we should be able to.