The Road Not Taken

At some point I thought this poem was actually more optimistic. Brave. Daring. People quote it all the time to justify some new move or something that they are nervous to do. Something they want to be proud of. And sure, you get to apply the poem to your life as you see fit. But call me a realist, and also knowing a thing or two about overgrown trails (i.e. that is typically not the time you find yourself most in love with nature), I think that this poem - namely the signature line - is best kept together. Look at it in context of the paragraph:

I shall be telling this with a sigh,

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a road, and I,

Took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

What is the sigh, Rob??!!

Was it nostalgia? Maybe remembrance of a time when you had the option to actually choose rather than the obligation to just keep moving forward? Was it relief? Maybe satisfaction that you had made a choice you were happy with? Or could it also be exasperated? Exhausted from that freaking overgrown trail. It made a difference to take that path sure, but difference is a pretty neutral word and you didn't help us out with an adjective there, bud.

But that's how choices go. You choose them. They make all the difference. And the only emotional response you can predict for how you will feel about those choices in your future better be a word so vague that it allows for all the possibilities. Better be a word like sigh. 

No answers here. Not even any advice. Just a beutiful reflection.

Ahhhhhhhh.