The Road Not Taken

I was thinking tonight about where my life has gone in the last few years, mainly since my OSU graduation. I thought about some of the incredible people that have entered my life and how grateful I am for them. I thought about my first grown up job and how I hope to be able to do it again someday. I thought about some of the people that have left my life and how that has impacted me. I thought about the triumphs and good times I have had, as well as the mistakes I have made. But most of all, I thought about how all of these things that have brought me to where I am today. I graduated college and moved out on my own. I got my heartbroken by a boy. I dated someone that unknowingly taught me about myself, both what I loved and what I wanted to change. I realized how important real friends are and that when you find them, it is best to hold on tight and fight for them. I almost lost my dad. I had a big kid job, and suffered the heartbreak of not getting that job back. I met someone that truly embodies good and genuineness in everything he does. I started grad school. Plus a million other small moments.

I think that often people wonder about what could have been. They look back on events in their life and wonder what would have happened if they had done something differently. I am guilty of doing that on more than one occasion. Tonight though, while thinking about everything that has happened, I asked myself "Would I change any of it?" and honestly the answer is a resounding NO! So many monumental things have happened to me in the last few years. All of these things, both good and bad, have made me who I am. If it weren't for these moments, these events, these people, I would be a completely different person. I wouldn't be me.

The title refers to my favorite poem of all time by Robert Frost. It doesn't quite fit with my topic, but I related to it so I wanted to include it. I am blessed to have taken the road I did, with all of its wonderfulness and flaws. It led me here.

The Road Not Taken

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.