Making The Decision: The Road Less Traveled

Making The Decision: The Road Less Traveled

Written by Katherine Tuesday, 16 June 2009 06:57

The poem "The Road Less Traveled" by Robert Frost has always haunted me. In many ways it speaks to me about making a choice, making a decision and going boldly down a new road. The decision to be childfree was not something I knew at an early age. I was pretty much traveling down the main road with lots of potential paths in my sight. I started down one path thinking my life would include a husband and maybe one or two kids. If I were to put it on a checklist, everything was going pretty close to the stereotype. College…check...  Husband…check…   Apartment…check  ... Jobs…check  ... Two cats…check.  Once we were settled it was time to discuss the “two kids” box.

It turns out that while I wanted children, my husband did not. He was an early articulator and knew he did not want them; however, he was willing to walk down that road of possibilities sometime in the future. Circumstances, and perhaps time, shaped the path that lead me to the divergence in the woods: Do I stay married and not have children, or do I leave the marriage to pursue that desire? It was indeed a very difficult choice. At the age of forty-two I made the choice to go boldly down the childfree path and, while it is not as heavily traveled, I am finding lots of friends along the way.  Being on the fence (or at a fork in the road) is not easy. Making a decision does have its consequences, but it also has its rewards. The important thing is that it feels good to have made the decision and not be stuck any more. I am truly enjoying my life and all of the opportunities that I can consider because I chose the road less traveled. Below is the Robert Frost Poem: think about the times you have had to make a decision and choose a path….did you choose the path of least resistance, or did you decide to take the road less traveled?

The ROAD LESS TRAVELED

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 onto 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 took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference.

 

 

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