Something to Think About

I am now beginning a new series of posts entitled "Something to Think About". These posts will consist of a poem, or passage from a story in which I hope you will take the time to think about during your very busy days. I might even share my own thoughts as well.

We'll start the first post off with...

The Road Not Taken

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 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.

When I read this poem by Frost, it makes me think of something my mom or my teachers would always (and still) say, "Be your own person" or "Don't be like everyone else". In this poem, I think the traveler is trying to decide whether to follow the crowd, or to go his own way. In the end, he decides to take the "the one less traveled by" or the road that will take him to a place where he will find his own destiny, not everyone else's.