"My upbringing" is the problem with your first paragraph, which is all I read.
My upbringing was never really one that allowed me to obtain much liberty. Both of my parents, for fear of the consequences, rarely let me stray too far from the mandates they set forth. It's only been recently, when I joined the school Astronomy Club, that I have really been able to appreciate my first true tastes of independence.
The following words evoke a charged tone or have been misused otherwise: upbringing, liberty, consequences, stray, mandates, independence, etc.
Liberty is not obtained. Liberty does not mean independence. To appreciate something here is to presuppose about what has been preconceived.
Sean used to be a moderator here, and it reminds me of him when you use words that are useless: never, really, much, too, really, first, true, etc.
Your sentence structure needs work. You should refrain from juxtaposing emotions, tones, and narratives that clash; this can be corrected at least partially by changing some of the words that I've listed up above.
There are obvious problems with grammar, but this is not my area of specialty so I'll give just one example: In a sentence, such as this one, the words between commas should serve as a comment/afterthought, and they must be non-essential to the integrity of the sentence as an independent clause; your sentence works fine, but vital meaning is misplaced within the set of commas.
Finally, not for lack of more problems to point out but for a lack of time, I recommend that you avoid making vague allusions that distract from your purpose.