I am the very model of a modern Major Ge....never mind

Many countries of the world are directly next to oceans or seas (bear with me on this one).  These vase bodies of water supply food, energy, access and even potable drinking water to their peoples.

 

For these reasons, countries claim the waters surrounding their lands as being a part of their sovereign territory.  By various treaties and conventions, a set distance from the coastline is designated as sovereign, other distances are acknowledged for sole financial purposes (fishing, oil).

 

No really, bear with me on this.

 

Some countries don't like the geometry of this arrangement and they started claiming distances further and further out.  In essence, they were expanding the borders of their country further out into the ocean.

 

My God, is she going somewhere with this?

 

You would think that the world would raise a stink about this but the thing is, if no one challenges the expanded borders, they become real.

 

That's right.  Countries yell 'DIBS' on some piece of ocean and if no one say 'nu uh', they get it. 

 

So what other countries do is send ships.  They don't fight anyone in those waters, they just go there.  By tagging up in those waters, they erase the claim the expanding country has on that area.  'Freedom of Navigation' is the principal.

 

Oh, come on. Get to it, Anne!

 

I have been ceding ownership of my life away for a while now.  I have not owned my own happiness.  I am nearly apologetic for taking up space in the world.  I have been meek and have been letting circumstances drive my life instead of setting it on the course of my own choosing.

 

I need to reclaim my own space again before my shrunken borders become real - permanent.

 

It is time I owned my life again.

 

(This bizarre analogy has been brought to you by the letters G, P, W and Phi.)