The road less traveled

I remembered the title as an essay topic for one of my examinations during my Junior College days. I didn't even attempted that question, because I had nothing to write on that topic. This less traveled road seemed to me like a road fit for a ranger, for a challenger, for someone who is looking for something bigger in life, someone who is comfortable not fitting into social norms, mainly because their search is something which cannot be fulfilled in the material world we know today. He/she is always someone who is courageous to chase after what seemed to be impractical in life, or rather a pursue for an ideal, a state, rather than a physical outcome. I couldn't write that essay because I was a norm. I was everyone, the safer one, the rule-abiding one, and the unsure one, who thought it's best to follow the rules of society until I got things figured out.

This figuring out took a toll on me. It took my creativity, my imagination, my happiness, and even my dignity, the main basis of what made me human. I became a machine, working round the clock, just doing my best until I got things figured out.

Eventually, I didn't get anything figured out. The one thing I figured was an answer that was right in front of me. I knew I didn't like the lifestyle I was leading but I just kept on with it. It struck me strong when I looked around at the older everyones and I realized majority of them didn't get things figured out in the end. They simply followed a rite of passage that is common to everyone.

I jumped, and I made a big jump. It was then when the road less traveled made sense. In this road, you have nothing to prepare you for what's ahead. In fact, once you chose the road less traveled, it's never one single road like everyone else. It's a legion of roads, never traveled by others because it's a road made by a person who chose this path. Most of the time, these roads were never built to perfection, instead of just traveling on the road, you have to be the person to build the road just so you can travel on it.

In this road less traveled, there's no easy way out. In this journey, you need to pack the necessary - a bottle of fighting spirit, a badge of independence, the ability to take no as an answer, an attitude of nothing is impossible, an antidote for disappointments, superhuman strength, accepting that people around you would never understand what you are going through, a humility for support from others, pills for loneliness, and most importantly, a big bag of hope.

On my road, I'm constantly plagued with situations which I avoided in my entire life as an everyone. This clash between my need for order and stability, coupled with my need for freedom, created a road which constantly meanders and yet, constantly reminds you the reason you started on this journey in the first place.

Maybe, I didn't prepare myself for this road. Maybe I thought I was prepared for this road. Yet, there's never a perfect plan for the road, because if that happens, it would be a road suited for everyone. At times, this road less traveled seemed to hurt the people you loved, because of the obligation to support you on this road they were never prepared to take, hence the misunderstandings and the notion that they can never understand the emotional roller coaster you're in. At first glance, they envied the new found freedom you have, but little do they know, this freedom comes at a cost of many downwards emotional spirals that they could never experience or understand in their everyones' path.

My road is self-built, and may not be the best. This process of building, however, simply shows the unrelenting fight for an avoidance to succumb, to be like an everyone who eventually only figured out they should have spent their lives doing what they love, instead of staying safe. It is a road to fulfillment, where at the end of the travel, even if I found nothing, I'm fulfilled just at the fact that I searched.

The road less traveled is a journey with no end, it's not a guided path with a destination. Being a path less traveled, do expect a road of loneliness and independence. Pessimist you might say, but it's about acknowledging what this new road brings. To this alternative life traveler, this road may just be the beginning of  a life worth living.