Autonomy without accountability is useless. You're free. Free for what? Free to do what? We need to specify. You're not free to fly like a bird and fall like a stone. You're not (always) free to travel without a visa.
Direction is important with freedom.
If you want autonomy you have to be accountable for something. The reverse is also true: If someone holds you accountable for something, they should give you autonomy.
Summer has helped me almost fully recover
From being brainwashed
I almost lost me
But
I'm back to dreaming
About shoeshine and smiles
Back to the taste of salty sunflower seeds
Back to the smell of chives
Back to fires
And stars
Back to believing that shoeshine and smiles
Have more value than the realists could ever understand
Back to almost being able to feel the child in me playing
As if responsibilities and time do not exist
Back to smelling sunscreen and sweat
And loving it
Back to laying in cool grass
While staring up at the clouds
Back to feeling a little bit lonely in a unique way
In a Stargirl sort of way
Back to being as chill as
A flower girl
Living barefoot
Is the way it should be
Watching plants grow and cheering them out of the dirt
Bare, raw emotions bursting out of us like our acne
Warm sun feeling so good on your skin
Dreaming sweet dreams
All the while never wanting to sleep because life is more interesting
And secretly believing in the magic of shoeshine, smiles and the healing of summer