The Road Not Taken
“ I took the road less traveled, and it has made all the difference… ”
It is a 100+year-old, well-known poem by Sir Robert Frost, about indecision, unknown consequences and making the choices that shape us. We have all heard this poem, which is still relevant today. I was in High School-SPCP when I first read it. It has been 25 plus years ago. (No, no, I’m not that old!)
The poem tells us to think outside of the box, to go against the flow and to be an individual who gets off the beaten path to follow his dreams !
Last week as I visited the Côte d’Azur, I saw this enchanting place. As I drove past the road (photo above) I can’t help but be mesmerized by its appalling beauty. (France is really pretty!)
It was already 12 noon, hungry yet excited when I quickly made a U-turn to have some photo snaps. Then, I remember the poem from my High School days that’s why I called it “THE ROAD NOT TAKEN.”
Here is my take on the poem’s representation in my life…
Once, as I was walking down the road of life, I suddenly reached a fork (metaphor on deciding moment de ma vie !) I knew that I could only walk over one of the paths. That’s why I took the time to choose the right one, (that is to go to France or to America ?!)
I stood paralyzed trying to peer down the two pathways and into my future. But since nobody has done it before me, no one was there to guide me nor give any clarity about the choices. I didn’t know which was a better option, and then I chose the one which seemed less walked over…
That happened 20 years ago and I have no regrets in choosing my route to France ! Oh, la la !Although when I made the decision back then, I had a little fear in my heart because I knew that I can never go back to that fork again and get the chance to walk over the other path someday.
However, as time passes by and I went further on my chosen direction… (I became a wife, a mother and also the first French-Pinay-Clinician !) I discovered that I own my choices. There are no right or wrong decisions in life, because I, myself, am the author of my own story.
Whether we made choices on impulse or with meticulous care, there is NO straight highway nor short-cut to success. That all roads will always be crooked ! Yet only with a solid determination and perseverance (plus God’s guidance ! ) … slowly but surely, you will eventually reach your goal in life.
Merci mon Dieu for this magnificent journey !
Cheers to my 20-years life in France (the road less traveled) and Happy Birthday to me !
So there, let us reminisce this poem with a new perspective on our daily life missions. Though the answers are not always clear for the moment, it’s in retrospection that we find the true meaning and purpose of our life decisions.
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.
Tell me your thoughts about Sir Robert Frost’s poem.
– Clinician Nancy 🍀
Textes de référence :
- The road les taken by Sir Robert Frost
Very inspiring.
I salute you, my fellow Paulinian. Cheers to the
birthday girl.
More power to the first French-Pinay Clinician!
To God be the glory.