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 marked 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.1
There is always a road not taken in our lives, be it a lost love or a missed oppurtunity – there’ll always be a ‘what if’. Life is defined by its oppurtunities, even by the ones we miss2. We’ll always look back nostalgically on our life choices – good or bad. And, we’ll always have some roads we’d like to take if given a chance again – wish we could turn back time.
We make our decisions with conviction that we chose the best path, but only our future self can validate that claim. We can never know what’s at the end of the road – sometimes that’s the uncertainity, sometimes that’s the beauty. Years from now I’ll look back on my life and wonder ‘what if’. Kabhi kabhi mere dil main khayaal aata hai…
1: poem by Robert Frost
2: dialogue from ‘The curious case of Benjamin Button‘
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