The Lesson of The Two Roads

I once read the poem “The Road Not Taken” by a very prolific poet by the name of Robert Frost. The first time I read this poem, I was still in secondary school and I needed to read this poem to actualize my dream of scoring a high mark in my literature class during exams. At that point in time, I read the poem with the same concentration and disdain a professor would use in reading a first year student`s assignment.
I had to read it to get that score I wanted. So, I got my not-so-high score in the examination, read the same poem for my WASSCE examination, and again, I got another not-so-high score. It just dawned on me that my method of reading the poem was definitely a road I should not have taken.

Skip forward a few years I stumbled on this poem again after my not-so-good experiences with it in the past and this time, I decided to take the other road. This time, I read the poem with the exact concentration it needed. It probably was easier because I had no exams to write about it again and this attempt to read it this way has made me better for it. I was able to really understand the depth from which the words were flowing from the writer, I understood more perfectly the place of “Choice” in a person`s life and much more importantly, I got to understand that making choices is what we actively do constantly and consciously even though some of us stoutly refuse to take definite stands on accepting the responsibility that comes with the conscious decision we have made.

Have you ever been caught in the middle by two choices you could make? It could be a career move, a new business plan, an opportunity to invest in a proposition or not, a decision to make someone your friend or not, a change of location and scenery etc. Just name them, we always would have a plethora of conscious choices we could make. I guess it comes with the territory. From sun up to sun down, we are stuck with making decisions for today, for a better tomorrow and even when that morrow comes, we still would be stuck with making choices except if God makes a choice for us and decides whether he still wants us alive and far from him or dead but closer to him.

Something struck me while I was reading that poem. The last two lines really touched a chord in me. “I took the one less travelled by and that has made all the difference”. I took the road less traveled by people and that has made all the difference, I took the unpopular route and that has changed the outcome of everything. I could keep on reconstructing those two lines in different ways but the general underlying message would still be the same. Those lines remind me of a quote by Albert Einstein. “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. Taking a different path to a destination would definitely get us a result different from what others who followed the “normal” route would get.

Always have this at the back of your mind: there are always choices to be made, sometimes you will have just two options, other times, you will have much more than two options. Remember that making a choice is very compulsory. If you refuse to make a choice, just realize that you have made a choice to not commit to any position. Once we accept that there are always choices to be made, you can then decide what path you wish to tread. Do you want to follow that traded route that would give you the result all those who went that route got, or you want a very different road that will get you a different result? That is another decision for you to consciously make. After these initial decisive stages, you get to another important part which is, accepting responsibility for decisions taken. 

Accept the responsibilities that come with the choice you made. Like I would say, I guess it comes with the territory. If you can adhere to these basic rules, then I think it is safe to say that you have learnt quite exceptionally, the lesson of the two roads.

By: Emmanuel Ibekwe