What is freedom?

A google search for "What is freedom?" yielded 251,000,000 results in 0.09 seconds. Obviously way too many to sift through. Such an obscure topic to attempt to define. It is apparent that the answer to this question is not going to come from outside sources. Freedom is something everyone must discover for themselves. One must experience freedom to know what it is.

How do we know what freedom is when we have it? Is it the first time you drive anywhere by yourself? Your first time staying out past midnight? Maybe it's when your parents drop you off at college. Could it be more simple than that? Is it just that feeling when you're driving fast, windows down, music blaring? Complete independence.

I'm free when I decide not to care what anyone thinks. I'm free when I make decisions for myself. I'm free when I use my money for what I want. I'm free when I decide to be.

But what is freedom? 

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."

-Albert Camus

How does one become so free?  

dictionary.com's definition of FREEDOM

free-dom
[free-duh m]


-noun

1. the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint: He won his freedom after a retrial.
2. exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc. 
3. the power to determine action without restraint.
4. political or national independence.
5. personal liberty, as opposed to bondage or slavery: a slave who bought his freedom.
6. exemption from the presence of anything specified (usually followed by from): freedom from fear.
7. the absence or release from ties, obligations, etc.
8. ease or facility of movement or action: to enjoy the freedom of living in the country.
9. frankness of manner or speech.
10. general exemption or immunity: freedom from taxation.
11. the absence of ceremony or reserve.
12. a liberty taken.
13. a particular immunity or privilege enjoyed, as by a city or corporation: freedom to levy taxes.
14. civil liberty, as opposed to subjection to an arbitrary or despotic government.
15. the right to enjoy all the privileges or special rights of citizenship, membership, etc., in a community or the like.
16. the right to frequent, enjoy, or use at will: to have the freedom of a friend's library.
17. Philosophy- the power to exercise choice and make decisions without constraint from within or without; autonomy; self-determination.