I've Got Nothing Left to Lose

People do not glorify freedom enough. I would rather die than live a life with fewer freedoms than I have right now.

My Sweet Rossy Wossy (Oct 2024)

I come from a house where the mentality was, 'I've got nothing to lose.' Our family is in such a BAD state that if I had a career in prison, the family’s value would simply be at a net zero. Honestly, nothing I could’ve done would make the reputation of our family any worse since it was already bad enough. So, I took full liberty to be a little sh** in elementary, middle, and even high school. Why do the right thing? It’s not like I’m gonna be hurting anyone in the process. Mom doesn’t care, Dad doesn’t care, Mel doesn’t care. I don’t care.

In my sophomore year of high school, I decided to take APUSH. When doing this, I became surrounded by a bunch of college-obsessed freaks. 'I wanna go to UMich.' 'I wanna go to NYU.' 'I wanna go to Harvard.' I simply could not care less. I didn’t care about grades or anything of that matter. One day, my friend was talking about going to UMich, and I decided to look into why people were so obsessed with this school. I saw the relatively low acceptance rate, but I also saw the relatively high average income that Ross kids made out of school. Thinking about my life—where I was sharing a bed with my mom and sister in our 700 ft house covered in mold and other biohazards, and how I never had a space of my own—I thought about what money could do for me.

It could give me freedom.

Freedom from my current situation, freedom from my parents, freedom from the people around me, freedom to eat what I want, do what I want, and be who I want to be.

It sounded incredible, but I simply was not that type of student. I don’t study, I don’t do extra class work, and I only do what feels good at the moment, like playing video games, sleeping, and not doing homework.

Sure, I was that type of person, but also, if I did try to do other stuff or tried to put in effort into school, it should also be fine because if I failed, it wouldn’t matter. I had nothing left to lose. I might as well start trying. So, I started busting my ass. Started turning sh** in. Started doing extracurriculars. Started challenging authoritative figures since realizing that I had nothing to lose also meant I might as well fight the people who were going to try and dictate my current moment.

Graduating high school with high honors, and then eventually getting into Ross, gave me new forms of freedom. I finally get the freedom from my parents. I get the freedom from stress. I get the freedom to put what I want into my body, and the freedom to treat my body how I please, which means gym. I have the freedom to complain and fight for a better life. I have the freedom to wear what I want to wear. I have the freedom to challenge others. I have the freedom of my finances. I have the freedom to make mistakes. I have the freedom of life. It’s incredible. It’s one of the biggest things I am grateful for. Knowing I’ve finally obtained what I didn’t have and tasting the privilege of freedom in my life has made me protective over it.

Always value freedom. Freedom isn’t just not having restrictions, it’s the ability to own your life, your decisions, and your mistakes. You have to fight for it, protect it, and appreciate it. If you’ve ever felt stuck or powerless, I hope I remind you that you always have a choice. You’ve got nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Value your freedom, and protect your neighbor’s freedom—even if you disagree with how they express theirs. Everyone deserves the freedom to make their own choices and mistakes. You deserve the freedom to be happy and so do they if they don't infringe on other people's happiness.

And seriously, start putting effort into sh** even if you think it’ll backfire and fail. It's done wonders for me and will do wonders for you. You’ve got nothing to lose.