Normality

The Road Not Taken

BY ROBERT FROST

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"

The road less traveled.... repeats in my mind. I step into the shower, my mind pounds with thoughts, thoughts that race with worries. I shampoo my hair.. "and that has made all the difference" sets into my heart calming its palpitations like a warm heated towel calms a shivering quivering child after a long cold water swim. 

            As a child I never really was "Normal" I played with bottles and made generations of Suave and Herbal Essence body wash with those same bottles in the bath for hours. While many 6 year old played with Bratz dolls and had journals with those nifty locks. There was a joy in giggling and ice cream that I knew far more than the normal 14 year old who looked for cute boys and possibilities to increase their contact lists. Funny isn't it, how life in its purest most innocent state does not even know the word "Normal" or consider the pressures that the everyone puts to be just one other individual in our big world. As I sit on my couch and let myself breathe through the last days which have brought me and consider what makes me tick. I realize that, that very pressure that I hate and despise have taken a blow to my life's perceptive. This pressure has manipulated my actions, taken captive my thoughts, and changed who God intended me to be. No i'm not "Normal"..... but what is normal anyway. Is it a mere carbon copy of the person standing next to you? because if so, by no means do I even desire such a life. So as I stand in the present and ask myself "who are you going to be?" I now know that the silly anxieties of normality and comparison to the others around me is just thief of my happiness  and hindering me to live who God made me to be. So NO, I'm not clubbing, I'm not drinking every weekend or dating every guy in my town. I would rather be at home with some tea, watching food network and easing into 8:30 pm bed time. I don't wear skanky clothes or heels the size of mount Everest. But I'm content in my trucker hat or white bow-my Roxy bathing suit-and Nike running shorts..... And finally NO I'm not in a sorority, or enrolled in the coolest College. But I am perfectly content with being a home body, loving my family, and trying to be the best aunt I can be. In closing my wish would be for you to find this peace, this freedom in knowing that normal... is ONLY the road taken over... and over... again.... with beauty that has been stolen be people who have already traveled that path. So take the one not taken, because the beauty found on that path-although occasionally thorny and uncomfortable will be the most rewarding experience you will ever ever have.