My Freedom - Day 4

OK - here is today's prompt - "Have you ever been inspired by the words of a poem? Share the poem with your blog readers (you) and tell them how you came to value its words.

Here is the poem - I first read it in High School back in the late 1980s. I will let you read it - though most have read it before - then to follow I will tell how I came to value it.

The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost (1874–1963).

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.

My value to this poem is that I first read it at a difficult time of a teenager's life. I was in high school and was smart and taking harder college prep classes with a desire for higher education. I was not an athlete, nor was I the pretty one or flirty one. Rather, I was more into books and had responsibilities at home and a job in the later parts of high school. I was also a Christian teenager in school of many different morales and ethics. It was difficult to always make the "right" choice as most often it came with ridicule and teasing or plain ignorance from classmates and sometimes even close friends. I was commited to my virginity till marriage and that was unpopular as well. Face it, high school places many strains on kids that begin their decision-making processes for the rest of their lives so good decisions make life down the road much easier but the good decision at the time is not always popular or accepted. This poem encouraged me to take the "road not taken" by the masses and be proud of my decision. Did I always make the right decisions, no but who does. I kept this poem in my notebooks throughout high school and even college - few even know this fact - as constant reminder of my commitment to making good decisions even when they were not the popular decisions.

Boy, this was a thought provoking prompt but I had no problem knowing which poem to reference.

Till tomorrow my friends.