The Road Less Traveled

We can’t help but reflect on our past choices, as we get older. The “what if” question always comes up, in one way or another. It doesn’t necessarily mean regret or dissatisfaction with one’s current situation, just a natural process of growing up. 

It is through reflection and evaluation of our past choices and actions that we are able to evolve and improve our lives and interactions with others. It is a natural part of this process to ponder on choices or opportunities not followed. 

It might be the allure of the unknown, that same desire for adventure that drives humanity to explore never before traveled paths. I believe forks in the road are the hardest to pass up. As Robert Frost says in his poem “The Road not Taken” 

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. 

We ponder, many years later, what happened to the other road? The imagination runs wild with possibilities and, before you know it, it becomes a psychological debate. If you are lucky, you stop pondering before the headache becomes too large for a simple pain killer. Inevitably, it will return, at a different time or about a different choice. 

One must always make a decision; do I dwell in the past or move forward with my life and enjoy what I have achieved? The smart person in me says: move on! The happiest people I know are those that are able to continue with their lives without getting bogged down by the “what ifs” I am trying, not always successful. 

I would be interested in hearing from readers about this topic. Are you constantly plagued by this question? What is your strategy for dealing with it, not allowing it to drag you down the rabbit hole? 

I look forward to the comments and/or suggestions. Until then, 

Jose.