Anyone else follow the advice from "Road Not Taken" and regret it

[Tohru]

This is not meant to be totally serious, but the other day my husband and I were discussing how it seems we always pick the wrong choice, the least popular one. 

 

Fifteen years ago, we had a choice between 2 stocks, one was Wolrd of Warcraft Online.  We didn't choose WOW, which if we had, we would be millionaires right now. 

Other things came up: the bank we liked went out of business, the babycarrier I preferred is no longer made, the curricula I love is out of print, my lotion preference is no longer available...the list goes on.

 

Lots of other things like that too.  Grrr. 

Oh yeah, taking the road less travelled (less popular opinion) sure has made all the difference!

If only I could sue my 4th grade teacher and Robert Frost.

 

For those that need a reminder:

 

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;

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.

 

-Robert Frost-

 

[Haiku]

Well, on the bright side, you're still married to your husband. He was a good choice, right?

[katilac]

Yes! Too funny.

 

dh and I actually joke that earning our patronage is a sure way for any company to go out of business. If we bring out-of-town visitors to a restaurant we have discovered, we tell them, "Enjoy it, we're sure it won't be here next time." 

[Lara in Colo]

You cannot know the outcome of the other road-- you could be millionairs that spend all their time getting hit up for money or sued.  You could have gotten divorced from something that happened.

 

And by the way-- it says that the road "made all the difference"--- YOU assumed it was a better difference-- perhaps yes, perhaps no-- but most likely just different. 

 

[Lara in Colo]

BTW if I like something it is guaranteed to go out of business!!  My endorsement is the kiss of death

[Seeker of Schole]

Do you mind a little literary analysis?

[Spryte]

...DH tried to convince me to buy Apple stock back in the 90s, when it was super cheap.  I chose groceries (we were starving students, what can I say?)... Your WoW story resonates here.  :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tohru]

...DH tried to convince me to buy Apple stock back in the 90s, when it was super cheap.  I chose groceries (we were starving students, what can I say?)... Your WoW story resonates here.   :)

 

Oh! We could've been yacht neighbors!

 

The company we chose went out of business...we laugh and say if we would've picked WoW, they probably would've went out of business and then there'd be less addiction, less online gaming, it was our chance to save world.

[Spryte]

Oh! We could've been yacht neighbors!

 

The company we chose went out of business...we laugh and say if we would've picked WoW, they probably would've went out of business and then there'd be less addiction, less online gaming, it was our chance to save world.

 

Yep, in some alternate universe we're on our yachts!  

 

On the other hand, food is good, so... I'm okay with it all.  :)

[Paige]

I thought the road was only justified as the road less traveled as justification after the fact; like hindsight. So, you see it as the road less traveled, but who's to say it really was?

[Jeannie in NJ]

anyone remember Teletubbies?  Well, many years ago, some of our extended family sent a year living in England. They called us and told us to buy stock in the company that owned Teletubbies.  They said it was huge in England and they heard it was coming to America.  We made a lot on that stock.  But then another time, we invested $10,000  in an online company and lost it all but then after that dh went to the casino and made exactly 10,000 which we were able to buy out the lease on our car so we feel some things just go back and forth .  Another time I lost a 20 dollar bill  out of my pocket while out shopping and then a week later we were at the movies. We always stay for the credits so after the theatre was empty and the lights came on I found a 20 dollar bill.

 

The road taken.  I was living in Los ANgeles for 5 years and then decided to come back to Texas and live with my aunt (same age as me).  She was going to Texas A and M.  We had 3 roommates, one of them was dating a guy who brought his roommates over one night.  One of them is now my dh.

[Seeker of Schole]

 

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;

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.

 

-Robert Frost-

 

 

A little analysis- as shown by the bolded lines, the two paths were worn - or used - the same; and no one had taken either path yet that morning. Frost then says that in the future when he is telling this he will say he took the one less traveled, despite both paths having been equally traveled.

 

Each path is really what you make of it.

[Cindy in FL.]

I try not to like tv shows, because if I do they get cancelled. :)

[Caroline]

I try not to like tv shows, because if I do they get cancelled. :)

Me, too! :)

[Tammi K]

But, it works both ways, right? I had tickets for the PanAm flight the went down over Lockerbie. I didn't want to fly PanAm but it was the gov. rate carrier for where we were stationed. I wanted to fly Lufthansa - more expensive but they treated their customers better- but they had no seat. By a fluke, or the grace of God, a day before the flight I got a call from the travel agent saying there was a cancellation. I went down and exchanged my tickets. (This was back in the 'old days' of paper tickets)  I flew home from Germany with two little kids on the Lufthansa flight at a loss of several hundred dollars out-of-pocket but we all know how the other flight ended.

[G5052]

Yes, it works both ways.

 

I had friends who went to work for Silicon Valley start-ups after college.  

 

Some of them showed up at work after a year or two on the job to find a locked building with a sign that the company had gone out of business.  This happened multiple times to people I knew who were extremely talented.  They often were paid partially in stock options.

 

Others went with "small" companies like Yahoo and Netscape, and became millionaires.  Thankfully they moved on and kept their wealth before those companies began to fall.

 

Others followed more conservative paths with companies like HP and IBM, and are still there.

 

I went to work for a university and did fine, but nothing like my Silicon Valley friends.

 

Different paths, indeed...

[Mama Geek]

There are risks and pros and cons to everything.  Some things work out well and some things don't.  We really take a road less travelled and sometimes it can be really aggravating like when the bank puts a hold on your credit card while you are at the grocery store and not in your home state, but there are other times that dh gets to take months off at a time in between jobs.  

 

We waited to have children.  I had more than a 10 year career in white collar jobs.  I will now probably only have 1 child instead of a house full because of that decision.  The good is I can now stay home with her while we have no debt and we can do lots of things like me homeschooling, taking dd to dance classes and music classes and hopefully with in the next couple of years we will buy a sailboat to live on where we can cruise part time and live on while dh is working.  Would I do some things differently if I had it to do over again probably, but then I might not have my wonderful little girl and a dh whom I have been married to for almost 20 years and who is still my best friend.  I wouldn't want to give either of those up.

[Mrs Mungo]

You are reading this poem all wrong. The poem is written in a young man's voice ("I shall be telling this with a sigh/Somewhere ages and ages hence"), but Frost wasn't young when he wrote this. In fact, he finished it after WW1, and it was written about a friend who was killed during the war. You'll note the "though as for that the passing there/Had worn them really about the same." He says something like this at three different points in the poem. The paths *are the same*. What is different is his attitude. This poem is a facetious take on *how people see* their choices, not the choices themselves. Frost is saying that we have to make choices, but we can't predict how those choices will wind up and all choices are equally good or bad. He's saying that we don't have as big of an impact as we think we do. We're not special snowflakes. Our choices matter less than how we deal with the outcome. You're doing exactly what Frost is advising against, regretting your choices and not appreciating them for having brought you to the moment where you are now and appreciating the beauty you actually saw and see now, rather than the things you missed.
 

Frost spent the years 1912 to 1915 in England, where among his acquaintances was the writer Edward Thomas. Thomas and Frost became close friends and took many walks together. After Frost had returned to New Hampshire in 1915, he sent Thomas an advance copy of "The Road Not Taken". The poem was intended by Frost as a gentle mocking of indecision, particularly the indecision that Thomas had shown on their many walks together. However, Frost later expressed chagrin that most audiences took the poem more seriously than he had intended; in particular, Thomas took it seriously and personally, and it provided the last straw in Thomas' decision to enlist in World War I. Thomas was killed two years later in the Battle of Arras.

Repeatedly Thomas would choose a route which might enable him to show his American friend a rare plant or a special vista; but it often happened that before the end of such a walk Thomas would regret the choice he had made and would sigh over what he might have shown Frost if they had taken a "better" direction. More than once, on such occasions, the New Englander had teased his Welsh-English friend for those wasted regrets. . . . Frost found something quaintly romantic in sighing over what might have been. Such a course of action was a road never taken by Frost, a road he had been taught to avoid.

[livetoread]

We had some Apple stock and sold it for a small loss to offset some gains that year. We were planning on buying it again at around $19 (about what we sold it for), but it shot all the way to $25, so we passed. Sob.

[Mrs Mungo]

A little analysis- as shown by the bolded lines, the two paths were worn - or used - the same; and no one had taken either path yet that morning. Frost then says that in the future when he is telling this he will say he took the one less traveled, despite both paths having been equally traveled.
 
Each path is really what you make of it.

Sorry, I was typing as you posted this shorter version. I agree. :)

[JennyD]

But, it works both ways, right? I had tickets for the PanAm flight the went down over Lockerbie. I didn't want to fly PanAm but it was the gov. rate carrier for where we were stationed. I wanted to fly Lufthansa - more expensive but they treated their customers better- but they had no seat. By a fluke, or the grace of God, a day before the flight I got a call from the travel agent saying there was a cancellation. I went down and exchanged my tickets. (This was back in the 'old days' of paper tickets)  I flew home from Germany with two little kids on the Lufthansa flight at a loss of several hundred dollars out-of-pocket but we all know how the other flight ended.

 

Wow.  That's some story.  

[Catwoman]

Oh! We could've been yacht neighbors!

The company we chose went out of business...we laugh and say if we would've picked WoW, they probably would've went out of business and then there'd be less addiction, less online gaming, it was our chance to save world.

Or you could have been multi-millionaires whose private jet crashed on the way to your glamorous vacation. ;)

I think we've all made choices that we have later questioned or regretted, but I always figure that if we're still here to talk about it and we're still feeling pretty well, we came out just fine in the end.