Life is a Highway
Noelle
Dr. English
ENC 102 T/Th
10 September 2013
Life is a Highway
Life is a series of crossroads and decisions that ultimately draw the map of our journey. It is the big decisions, however, that we later recall and reflect on the most, because those decisions have made the biggest impact on our lives. When we read Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken, we are confronted with the travelers’ difficulty in making an important decision, his chosen path, and ultimate outcome. Four years ago, I was living in Ft. Myers, Florida. I too, stood at a crossroads. I was 43 years old, my career was in the toilet, and I was fighting to keep my home. Having lived in Ft. Myers for twenty years, I was faced with the decision of whether or not to stay in the name of familiarity, or to move on for the sake of my family. It was a decision that could completely change my life. The beginning of the poem gives us the setting. The traveler states: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (Frost line 1). The “yellow wood” describes the traveler’s age. He is entering the “fall” of his life. He’s not a young man anymore. Here in the “yellow wood,” the traveler has come to a fork in the road which represents a decision. This must be a difficult decision as demonstrated in the line: “And be one traveler, long I stood” (Frost line 3) because the traveler is stating he stood there a long time, looking down the two roads, contemplating which road would be the better choice. Like the traveler, I was entering the fall of my life. When the real estate market crashed, my life started taking turns
Dr. English
ENC 102 T/Th
10 September 2013
Life is a Highway
Life is a series of crossroads and decisions that ultimately draw the map of our journey. It is the big decisions, however, that we later recall and reflect on the most, because those decisions have made the biggest impact on our lives. When we read Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken, we are confronted with the travelers’ difficulty in making an important decision, his chosen path, and ultimate outcome. Four years ago, I was living in Ft. Myers, Florida. I too, stood at a crossroads. I was 43 years old, my career was in the toilet, and I was fighting to keep my home. Having lived in Ft. Myers for twenty years, I was faced with the decision of whether or not to stay in the name of familiarity, or to move on for the sake of my family. It was a decision that could completely change my life. The beginning of the poem gives us the setting. The traveler states: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (Frost line 1). The “yellow wood” describes the traveler’s age. He is entering the “fall” of his life. He’s not a young man anymore. Here in the “yellow wood,” the traveler has come to a fork in the road which represents a decision. This must be a difficult decision as demonstrated in the line: “And be one traveler, long I stood” (Frost line 3) because the traveler is stating he stood there a long time, looking down the two roads, contemplating which road would be the better choice. Like the traveler, I was entering the fall of my life. When the real estate market crashed, my life started taking turns