Two Roads Diverged in a Wood, and I…

Note: this was the last post on my blog before taking the plunge and moving from hobbyist to professional photographer. I felt it was only fitting to make it my first post here.

 

Two Roads Diverged in a Wood, and I…

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

I first read “The Road Not Taken” during one of my most dreaded middle school classes -English. Ironic, due to the fact that I have since become an English teacher. I guess I hated all of the repetition and memorization required during those years so I would tune the teacher out completely and get lost inside the pages of my literature book. Some days there was an adventure, other days it was a sad memoir, but the day I found the poetry section a new love blossomed. I had so many questions and yearned for discussion but my classmates didnt understand and my teacher did not have the time.

You could trace my interest in teaching back to that moment. I despised my English teacher that year, in that my-emotions-are-extremely-heightened middle school kind of way, and felt she was neglecting to inspire a group of twelve-year-olds because her worksheet pile may go to waste. It was that day, browsing through the poetry section of my book, that I decided Robert Frost would be my teacher instead. So on one misery-filled middle school day, a particular poem stood out to me. As I read it over and over the message seemed to leap off the pages becoming more clear. It defined me. It still does. It may sound clich given the poems popularity but the words evoked such strong feelings in me as an adolescent that I have turned to the poem for comfort, reassurance, and strength in times of uncertainty.

Lifes has thrown me a little more than my fair share of curveballs, as it does everyone, but it has also taught me that I become better, stronger, and more aware with every new pitch. And with that, I embrace this new challenge, this career that has patiently waited for me to return for over a decade with more enthusiasm, wisdom, and gratitude than ever before.

I sincerely thank you, Mr. Frost.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.