© Son of Calasanz
TITLE: SPACE
THEME: THE QUEST FOR SPACE AND FREEDOM
TYPE: AN ARTICLE
Human beings have been created with the zeal to satisfy their needs .The quest for freedom is a fundamental craving imbedded in every human being. For this craving to be reached it is for individuals to have personal freedom and space. Often, those who need freedom to exercise their rights and talents are adolescent boys and girls. There are many ways young people wish to have their space and exercise their freedom: some who are obsessed with life or people around them tend to isolate themselves and rather build a paranoid altitude around them.Others get built through associations and peer groups. The question they often grapple with is “who am I”. This burning question and the hope of getting an appropriate answer to it leads them to trying out a number of things. At this level, young people see their parents and others significant elders as potential rivals and enemies, then the need to find space and the freedom to do whatever they want. They have desires that they want to satisfy but the society with its values and norms places restriction to the satisfaction of such desires. For example young people want to find more and experiment much about their sexuality but the society does not allow them to do such because a good girl or boy should have sex only when he or she is married. The restrictive laws society places on young people therefore force them to go looking for freedom and spaces for void of such barriers.

As time passes the young person gradually settles some of his or her inner disputes and therefore accepts society’s norms and integrates it. When this happens there is harmony and the need to identify with the other members of the society. At this moment the great desire for freedom and space is no longer the person’s concern but how to build a harmonious and acceptable life in his or her environment.