La Voz de Galicia – December 6, 2019 →
I went in to buy an adapter for my computer, and there was Fitz, a kid about twenty years old who helped me find what I was looking for without making me feel like a technologically illiterate person (which I am). We began to chat about how long he had been working there, about how long it took him to get from the Bronx to the Village… And then, after describing his day (college classes in the morning, work at the computer store in the afternoons and work as a security guard at night), he said: «now that I have the energy, I am doing everything I can to be able to have financial freedom by the time I am thirty.» Financial freedom? I asked. And it was at this point when Fitz gave me a lesson in humanity that I will never forget.
The concept Fitz talked about could apply to many things. Financial freedom is an idea that is generally related to passive income and to have the capacity to cover one’s own economic needs without having to work. But Fitz’s idea and his passion when he was telling me about it were much more interesting: «If you do what you love and earn what you need to be able to live, neither more nor less–that is financial freedom.» I thought about the way he said «neither more nor less,» as if ambition were not a part of his notion of wellbeing.
His truth, so simple and so beautiful, made me think all night. When does one decide to stop? When is it enough? At what moment do we decide on the conditions with which we can live happily? On what is that decision based? In reality, Fitz, who is part of a generation where ambition is not an obligation, was talking about being free from himself, about being able to choose his own wellbeing…neither more nor less.
