Hyperspeed Activated

We crave change. When faced with the possibility of an unknown future which could potentially make our dreams come true, few take the time to carefully examine to what extent they are willing to risk what dreams they have accomplished for an opportunity which offers nothing but uncertainty. 

Whether we do it seeking love, a better career or simply for the heck of it, we see rolling the dice as an entryway to a new and exciting future. We see change as a promise when it is nothing but our subconscious asking "what if...". We are positive that what we leave behind fades in comparison to what awaits us in that land of opportunity. 

In his poem "The Road Not Taken", Frost explores the idea of whether or not our choices determine our fate and whether or not we should question those choices after we make them. Whether one believes that choosing the road "less travelled by" was the correct choice, or even made a difference in where we ended up, it seems as if we always leaving something at the crossroads. 

For me, the reality of change has struck sudden and decisively with a single text message. The person that was closest to me for the past four years of my life got on a plane and left the country. She will return within the next month, but I will no longer be here, since I as well have a plane to catch. Realizing that I have chosen my career over those I love without realizing the pain that that would cause until tonight, I can't help but ask: Is following our fantasies a noble act which holds hope for an ideal future, or an act of selfishness which hurts both ourselves and those whose company we cherish and know to love us for sure? Are we not, in a way, saying that we want more? That what we leave behind is not good enough? Again, are we being reasonably hopeful or simply taking a chance on change with the odds stacked against us?

Of course, we can't do anything about this since we won't know the answers to these questions until we reach the end of our trip, and trace our steps back to those crossroads seeing if we chose the correct road. Until then, we can only dream that what awaits us is worth our choice, and that our dreams of change hold the key to a happiness so gratifying it is worth hurting others in order to achieve. 

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;        5 

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,        10 

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.        15 

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.        20 

- Robert Frost

http://www.bartleby.com/119/1.html