“The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost, is work that possesses the ability to captivate your mind and have you pondering the meaning he intends for us. Written in 1920, I consider this is an immutable piece of literature that teaches us the road not taken can be testing, but I learned it was worth it. I, like the narrator of this story, chose the road not taken, and it changed my life forever. I joined the Air Force.
Like the narrator of this story, I too, was at a crossroads. “Long I stood/And looked down one as far as I could/ To where it bent in the undergrowth” (lines 3-5). One path led to a civilian life, and the other path led to a military life. I decided to choose the military life, but, as Frost said, “Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back” (14), I knew I wouldn’t be able to come back and choose the civilian path. Though it wasn’t a difficult decision for me to make, it drastically changed my life in expected and unexpected ways.
When Frost wrote “I shall be telling this with a sigh” (16), I felt a pang of conscience. He knows that he will never be able to see the outcome from the other path. I can sympathize with this; I often felt this way when I was making the decision to join the service. So I had to say “Oh, I kept the first for another day” (13)! I made this choice because my heart pulled me toward my duty to my country.
After I made my final decision to join the Air Force, I didn’t know if that was the right one, yet I was satisfied. Like Frost, I knew no matter what path I chose people “Had worn them really about the same,/And both that morning equally lay/ In leaves no step had trodden black” (10-13). Moreover, I knew that the decision I made was of my own volition.
At a point “Somewhere ages and ages hence:/Two roads diverged in a wood” (17), this is something we will all face. Frost is telling us this, after reading this poem it only reinforces the sense of satisfaction I have knowing that...