a path less traveled...

Robert Frost (1874–1963).  Mountain Interval.  1920.

1. 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

This poem was one of the first poems I studied as an English student in high school. I have always liked the poem very much because it reflects a part of my personality: I don't like to choose but I sometimes HAVE to. I always want to satisfy the multiple wishes I have within me. I don't like to decide because... well, the other choice could be cool, too! You never know. And so, over the now almost 40 years (ouch, did I just say that?), sorry, 39 years of my life, I have and will always wonder: what if? 

It's not a positive nor negative decision, it's just a decision to be taken since we simply CANNOT always go down two paths at the same time. Physically, you just can't, though I promise you, sometimes I do try hard... and of course get lost and split in half by doing so.

Last Wednesday, I started my training to become an intercultural coach. 3 days of intensive studying... well, mainly yourself without really knowing it, and also techniques and theories, of course! We have to and had to get to know each other and myself over three days and form groups that will work together between sessions. And I kept wondering for three days if I had made the right choice going down this path rather than just going back to teaching at the engineering schools and thus taking the path 'well-traveled'. This new path with all its uncertainty is enticing and scary, fun and freaky. I know where I want to end up (i.e. intercultural coaching), but I don't know exactly how I will get there. It's a new adventure, a "path less traveled by" and I will see (and tell you) if it made the difference!

cheers