The Choice that I have to Live With Is this the right road to take? Each road we take is a personal decision, a decision we will have to live with for the rest of our lives. There are many choices in life that have to be made on a personal basis, there is only one person that can make those choices, and that person is the one who has to look at themselves in the mirror daily. “If you don’t make each decision carefully, you never know where you’ll end up. That’s an important lesson we should learn sometime. ” (Calvin and Hobbes) It’s not always about being in the center of the group or being like everyone else.
When it comes right down to it, the choices we make will ultimately affect the outcomes that the next generation will inherit. Whatever the choice is, it is one that will ultimately define each person’s life forever. In the poem “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost, is describing the challenges that everybody in life faces. Knowing that this decision will be a life changing one, the narrator stands and considers the one in front of him. We have all been in that situation at one time or another. As the author is looking ahead, he is truly wanting to travel down both roads, as he quotes, “And sorry I could not travel both” (line 2).
Everyone in life wants to be able to do more than one thing at a time, but there has to be a choice made. Once that choice is made, we will be responsible for everything we do from then on. But as the author stands looking at the roads in front of him, he is contemplating the road to choose. The road that he is looking at is long, as he gives the description, “looked down one as far as I could,” (4) then Frost continues giving his description of this road “to where it bent in the undergrowth. ” (5) Visualizing that he could see no more because of a bend in the view.
This is resembling a path of life that goes on and on and suddenly turns without a view of the future. This makes the writer feel that there is something not certain about this path and it is making him feel uncomfortable about that choice. Although we can never see very far in our walk, for the future is uncertain, there is always a sense of what could happen. This is where we need to follow internal instincts. So, as Frost writes about making the decision to choose the other road to travel, we see that although it is a different road, it is very similar at first glance.
This is often the scenario we are faced with when making choices in life. Both roads seem to begin the same, as we see this through the author’s eyes, when he states, “as just as fair. ” (6) As the author continues, he is describing how we often look at our decisions by stating, “And having perhaps the better claim / Because it was grassy and wanted wear;” (7-8) In our decisions never do we want to admit that the wrong path has been chosen, so we describe it as the better one. We can see that explaining what our road is looking like is very important to making ourselves feel good about the decisions that we’ve made.
The author goes on to state that his choice is similar to the other by stating, “had worn them really about the same. ” (10) We use this same description when trying to convince others that the road we’ve chosen to travel will be just like all the others. As the author goes on to describe the road in front of him, he is letting us know that he has yet to travel down this road he stands in front of, “in leaves no step has trodden black. ” (12) The author is also thinking that he is the first to travel this road he’s about to choose.
He is now ready to make his choice by stepping out and walking down the untraveled path in front of him. As he starts his walk, Frost is walking and thinking that he will be able to return to the other road by stating, “Oh, I kept the first for another day! ” (13) As we walk, we also are thinking with the same perspective by reminding ourselves that if this road doesn’t go like we think, I’ll just go take the other road and start again. This is always a good perspective to have because sometimes the road we have chosen is not the right one to take.
In the back of our minds we think I’ll just start a new path. Although both roads started at the same point as is evident by the words, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” (1) they ultimately will end at two different points in life. As we walk our roads in life, there is always time to stop and think about where we are going and what we want to accomplish. But we get so caught up in our walk that sometimes we just keep on walking and walking and lose track of how far we have truly traveled. When the author says. “way leads on to way,” (14) he is describing just that fact.
As we travel, we get comfortable with our choices and feel that there is no reason to ever turn back. But as the author is traveling the road he has sen, he has made this decision which he states “I doubt if should ever come back,” (15) thus stating that he is comfortable with the choice he has made. When Frost states, “I shall be telling this with a sigh / somewhere ages and ages hence,” (16-17) the thought is that none of us knows the future in our lives, we just continue to walk down the road one step at a time, knowing that someday we will be able to look back at where we have been.
Then we’ll be able to sit down with family and friends when our travels have slowed down, and tell them about the choices that we have made whether they were good or bad. Feeling that with our knowledge of the travels we took, they will learn from the choices that were made. As the poem starts to come to an end. Frost is reminding us that in life we have two choices to make, there is up or down, right or left, forward or back, right and wrong, the path that everyone takes and one that is seldom chosen, and so on.
When he made his choice by stating, “I took the one less traveled by,” (19) he is referring to a road that is not the popular one to take. I feel that this road he is talking about, is the road that makes each person be conscious of how they do things, instead of just living freely without repercussion for their actions.
When we look back at the road we’ve traveled in life, and evaluate it from beginning to the present, I believe that there will be a point where the realization f the authors’ statement “And that has made all the difference,” (20) will bring to life the saying, “the road I took being less traveled has made me the person I am today. ” Life is full of choices, and each one requires us to ask ourselves, “Am I choosing the right path? ” As we continue down the road of life we will always be reminded that the choices we make will define us to every person we come in contact with. This is why I believe that society today could learn a lot from this poem. Too many times in life people will follow the in-crowd just because they want to fit in.
As they start along their path, everything seems to be going well, just like the other path that has fewer people choosing it, but as Frost states, “way leads to way/I doubtedl should ever come back,” (14-15) they think that there is no going back and starting over. But they need to understand that the choice is theirs to make; there is always another road to follow. So, if the road that has been chosen is heavily traveled, and there seems to be nothing good coming from it, remember what Frost has to say, “I took the one less traveled and that has made all the difference. ” (19-20).
