“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood”, and I – I took the safer one, until now.

Years ago I came to a fork in the road and pondered which career path I should take. The one to the left was well-traveled. In fact, it was freshly paved and lined with curbs. Street lights that turned on at dusk dotted the roadside. There was even the occasional warning sign of what to expect ahead: a curve here, a dip in the road there. It was safe and well, a little boring.

The road to the right gave me a different feeling. It was not paved nor well-traveled. The surrounding vegetation threatened to overtake it. There were no curbs to keep me from straying off course and no streetlights illuminating the path. There was no sign of what may lie ahead. It was a little unsafe, even scary, but it peaked my interest.

Which one did I take?

I merged in with the rest of the traffic and took the safer route. I often wondered where the other road would have taken me. I plodded along “easy street” for years until I had the courage to make a U-turn and head back to the fork in the road.

Now I’m headed down the other path. It is still just as wild as it was all those years ago. It has not changed… but I have.

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, 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

Some 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.

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