My mom, more than anyone on the planet, has always known that my success relied heavily on my freedom. If she wanted to stay connected to me, she had to let me go, over and over and over.

To me one thing was clear: what he truly wanted was permission to live in the fullest expression of his truth, unbound by convention, no longer shackled by the crippling fear of not belonging in an already isolating human experience.

The freedom you seek, the choices and the options and joy and connection that you're after, exists on the other side of the pain you are currently running away from.