Robert Frost on The Journey of Life

Have you ever been about to make a decision, but then paused because a frightful force from within stopped you? Whether you need to release yourself from the embrace of self-doubt or simple procrastination, taking the next step is difficult. How do you break free? I was inspired into action by reading Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” where he writes about how life can be made more interesting by taking roads that are more “grassy” and “wanting wear”. So, instead of taking the seemingly simple path, take one where there are some unknowns. This can mean different things to different people. In my life, this has meant traveling to less accessible regions of the world or cooking increasingly complex recipes. It’s also meant that I’ve learned to become a better programmer and writer. However, Frost points out that the road you choose doesn’t really matter; Just don’t sit there waiting forever to make a decision. Like Frost, we’ll probably end up thinking about “the road not taken”, or what we gave up to live the life we’re living. But he tells us that we’ll never regret making decisions which lead us to a more interesting, although often unpredictable, life.

I took the more difficult road,

which was probably better,

because there was more to learn from it;

In the end, those that went down the difficult road,

ended up working about the same amount anyhow

A re-write of the second stanza

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.