What it means to be free in 2020
Contestant: Kayla Nickfardjam is a 17-year-old student at Miliken Community School in Los Angeles. Image by Courtesy of Kayla Nickfardjam
Editor’s Note: The Forward is featuring essays, poems and short stories written for our Young Writers Contest. Today’s entry was written by Kayla Nickfardjam, a 17-year-old student at Miliken Community School in Los Angeles. You can find more work from our young writers here
What it Means To Be Free in 2020
Today I lay
And gaze up
Not at a sparkling sky.
But at the white expanse
Of my ceiling
Today I lay
Sandwiched amid four walls of steel and wood
And yet
I am free
Freedom does not reside outside
Frolicking in golden meadows
Roaming in the feverish bustle of the city
I do not have to venture to find it
Nor does it seek me out
Knocking at my door
Seeping through the crevices around my bedroom window
Freedom lives within me
It lies in my choices
I feel it when I choose
To listen to the songbirds’ symphony in the morning
To savor the spicy, sweet taste of cardamom tea
To relish in the warmth of the Shabbat candles on my palms
To cherish the laughs of my family members like notes in a cheery song
The world is riddled with chaos
The raging pestilence looms over us
It troubles me
And shuts me indoors
But sorrow will not confine me
My freedom
Endures
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
