The Roads Less Traveled

For some reason we have all had moments where we have thought about giving up on something. The sad thing is that there are many people who choose to do just that. They give up imagining the journey is just going to be too hard and it won’t be worth it. But I believe if we really truly want something, then we are more than capable of getting through all of the hard moments to achieve the dreams we are waiting for. As I get older, I realize that the things in life that are easy are easy for a reason. They don’t require that much energy, they don’t require too much time, and they because it’s so easy to achieve we often do it halfheartedly going through the motions. But those hard things to achieve they take a lot out of us. We must be willing to give all of our energy, our time, patience, and willingness to face the crappiest of moments just to get to the other side. But once we are there we seem to appreciate it so much more. Maybe it’s because we remember just how hard it really was and the harder we must work to achieve those goals, the more meaningful it is to us that we made it. It is those achievements though that we relish the most, and are usually the most proud of.

In life I have been offered many roads and yet for some reason I have always picked the hardest ones. Many times I imagined I must be crazy, who would so willingly take the hardest, roughest, steepest paths in life? I watched the many around me choose the easy roads and sometimes I envied how easily they navigated through this world, with small triumph after small triumph. And there I was muddy, exhausted and still so far from my own triumphs. But I kept moving down my path no matter how hard it ever got knowing that eventually I too would be there. And now after all of these years and all of those struggles along my hard to travel roads I have finally realized why I have always chosen them over the more traveled roads. One day I will be sitting perched upon the highest mountain taking in the most breathtaking view. I will be bloodied, filthy, and exhausted but the struggles would have been more than worth it because the view from those roads will be spectacular. And when I look down and I see all of those people so far below enjoying their meager view of this world from the easier roads they traveled I’ll feel sad for them knowing how much better the view is from up here. They may get there faster, they may be more rested, and maybe even more put together but they would have been cheated from a miraculous journey. When I was a child Robert Frost encouraged me to choose my roads carefully. So that’s what I have done. Mr. Frost, you were right. I have taken the roads less traveled and that has made all the difference.