The Road Not Taken
Yesterday as I was trying to find old friends and relatives I remembered a poem that I studied in college—The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference
As I reminisce about the past, I wonder what would have happened if I took the other path when I was at that crossroad of life. How different would my life have been? God only knows the answer to that. At my age, I am not as young as I used to be and teenagers think that I am old. (Remember how when we were about 16, we considered 30-year-olds old?) As I reevaluate my life to see if I could have made better choices, I realize that I have some regrets. The "what ifs" will always remain that way. The lessons in life are valuable and cannot be bought. Hopefully, the younger generation will try to listen and learn from our life experiences. Maybe, if they do, they can spare themselves the pain of having to learn from their mistakes. This, though, is highly unlikely. I don’t know about you but, when I was young, I used to laugh at the advise given by my "elders". In retrospect, I find that they were right after all–but not all of the time. = ) I guess that part of being young is the right to make the mistakes and learn from it.
I think that we all have regrets in this journey of life. Some big and some small. We just have to live with it and learn from it. I took the path less traveled by and it has made all the difference.
Until next time. Take care.
