A life free and uncommitted?

A life free and uncommitted?

"I haven no doubt that time discriminates between the good and the bad; and when at last I shall plant, I shall be less likely to be disappointed. But I would say to my fellows, once for all, As long as possible live free and uncommitted."

Where I lived and What I lived For... page 60

A life free of obligation and full of free time and leisure is a life that Thoreau desires. A life that requires no obligation to anyone but yourself is something that may be hard to attain in the current day and age. Although we are in a world filled with the responsibilities of our everyday life, is the life of a college student the closest we will get to living an "uncommitted life"? Although we have responsibilities to our classes and our peers, there is no direct responsibility to a family, and in general people do not depend on us to better their life's. What would Thoreau say about the modern day college student? Once we graduate and move on to whatever our next step in life is, we will have duties and obligations to others beside ourself. The "free life" is something that, at least in my own life, is happening right now. I am pursuing goals and opportunities that are entirely of my own desire. When does this stop? Our modern conception of freedom seems to have been morphed into something different than what Thoreau thought of, what is different about it?