The Decision That Changed My Life
I used to think it was silly when people based their life off “signs.” Like some mysterious message from above could somehow tell you where to go, or reassure you that you’re going the right way. It seemed weird, that there was some being that specifically placed these events in a person’s life, just to give a push in the right direction. I suppose I didn’t want to believe in a predetermined fate. Not until I considered going to boarding school.
I woke up one November morning to drive two hours to visit a boarding school that I had first heard of less than a week before. I was already considering transferring schools, and thought that visiting a boarding school couldn’t hurt. Maybe I would really like it. I did. But I also liked my school. It was a school that had been attended by parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins, and family friends. It was a school that adored my grandfather so much that the gym was named in his honor. It wasn’t just my school, it was my family.
That weekend, I took a trip with my parents and sister to see a college football game. On the way back after dinner that Friday night we stopped at a bookstore, for no real reason other than to occupy ourselves. I now think there may have been another reason. As I was walking through the store, my sister dragged me to a table of books on sale. She had something “cool” to show me, but another book caught my eye. A poetry book. I opened it, and landed on a page that would determine the rest of my high school career, and possibly the rest of my life. “The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost. It was in that moment I realized I had no choice but to pack up my entire life and move to boarding school. So I did. Two weeks later, after Thanksgiving break, I woke up once again on a December morning to drive two hours to a boarding school that I had first heard of less than a month before.
My first day of classes were, without sugar-coating it, horrific. I remember sitting in my new Honors Chemistry class and almost bursting into tears, thinking to myself, “I will never belong here.” I didn’t know what part of me thought it would be a good idea to completely change my life within less than a month, but I had.
When I came back after Christmas break, no one could believe that I had only been attending the school for a few weeks. I guess I started to belong there. Now, two and a half years later, I could not be more satisfied with my decision. It changed my life, in every way a decision possibly could. When I step back and look at how the past few years of my life have turned out, I can’t help but laugh because, in some ways, I owe it all to a poem. I still believe it’s silly to base life decisions off signs, but I can’t say I never have. Because I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.
