The Invisible Cage: Backstory
When I look back on my years at university, one memory stands out like a banner: being called “mad” for pursuing something beyond the safe, prescribed path. It was 2019, and I had started to feel the weight of a question I couldn’t shake: Why should I trade my dreams for the security of expectations? I realized I was living in what I now call “The Invisible Cage”—where limits and fears aren’t built from steel but from the silent force of “shoulds” and “musts” that others place on us.
At that time, Twainlawz, my bolder, unapologetic side, stepped in. He was the avatar I needed to push boundaries, a new self navigating the system like a game with no extra lives. Chancellor Hall became my training ground, and each day taught me that the world was so much bigger than the confines of a classroom or a career track. I wasn’t just searching for “x” on a whiteboard; I was searching for a purpose that felt as eternal as the pyramids.
This poem, The Invisible Cage, grew out of that search, from that breaking point where I knew I had to claim my freedom. And as I started to redefine what wealth really meant to me, Bob Marley’s words echoed in my mind: What is a lot of money? Marley reminded me that wealth goes beyond dollar signs; it’s rooted in life itself. Money might be the air we breathe in a world of transactions, but it’s not the air that keeps our souls alive.
So here’s my invitation to you—step outside your invisible cage, question what freedom means, and remember that true wealth is uncountable. As I share this poem, my hope is that it stirs something in you to chase not only security but a life filled with purpose, peace, and the richness of true freedom.
The Invisible Cage
I know the weight of these invisible shackles all too well, not metal or chains, but expectations, quiet and loud, slipping over me like a net I didn’t see coming—a cage built from their doubt, from their “you should.”
University called me mad, but maybe that was my sanity. Maybe it was sanity to watch everyone play it safe, while my soul pushed back, refused to be caged, refused to trade purpose for comfort, peace for chains.
I let Twainlawz take the wheel, push limits, break walls, a new avatar in the game, Chancellor Hall’s wild card, living a life like GTA—no respawns, no resets, just here and now, learning strength in every hit,
figuring my way through the maze with open eyes, knowing, even then, that money was never the point.
Classroom formulas, finding x again and again—I craved more than letters on a chalkboard.
I wanted to find what lasts, like the pyramids in the sand, to live a life bigger than a bank balance, freer than fear.
At the end of the day, Bob Marley said it best—what is a lot of money?
My richness is life, forever. And if we’re here for eternity, why not embrace our greatest wealth in the process? Life itself.
See, money’s just a tool, it gets you what you need, but wealth—true wealth—is knowing money’s like air: abundant, unlimited, uncountable. So let’s ask, where does wealth begin? It’s here “now”, in this life, in freedom and joy, forever.
