When every choice involves the loss of opportunity, which path will you choose? When your choices come with incomplete information, how can you be certain? How long will you stand still before making your choice? How confident are you when you realize you can’t save the first road for another day when the road you chose tends to lead onward to another? Whichever road you choose will make all the difference. In order to be different and do something great, you have to think different and implement things with a different approach. You have to take a different lane; the road not taken.

Remember the poem “The Road Not Taken” penned 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…
The poem describes someone standing at a fork, or turning point, in a road in the woods, trying to decide which path he is going to take. He looks down one road as far as he can see, and after thinking for another minute, decides to take one because it looks like nobody’s been that way yet, and he is curious about where it leads. He thinks maybe he might come back another day and try out the other path but he has a feeling that the road he has chosen will lead him to new places and discoveries, and he probably won’t be back. He thinks wistfully about that road, which he did not take, and where he might have wound up if he’d gone that way instead. Part of him regrets his decision, but he also realizes that the things he’s seen and the places he’s gone because of the direction he chose has made him who he is.

This poem tells a lot about life in general. Life is all about making choices, whether it’s about choosing to change your daily diet or choosing the right partner. Every choice has its significance in some way or the other.
It makes me remember that past is always dynamic because it shapes my present and therefore, I should be careful about my present as it will take care of my future. Most importantly, this poem makes me think wisely about my choices. It reminds me that I should not make such a choice which I would regret one day and say ‘if I would have taken the other road, it would have been better’. Rather I should be proud of my decision and say ‘Yes! Since I chose the right path, it has led to all this difference’. The difference is what makes it different. Just as Frost ended the poem: “I took the road less travelled, and that’s all that matters”. There are no bad roads, there are only different battles that births different results.
In my opinion, the poet encourages the readers to create opportunities that may be overlooked by us because we all are in search of solutions for our problems rather than trying to sort out the things in the less conventional way.
Categories: Book Review, Courses, Education, Learning, Literature
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