The Choice to Be

Something I am learning is you honestly cannot listen to people. They will have a lot to say but if your ideas or dreams or goals don’t line up with what they think you should be doing they will do everything in their power to dissuade you. We already know how to check for those that are overtly negative and toxic. But what about those that are more covert. The ones we feel a really emotional attachment too because of proximity or relationship. 

Listening to people while you are trying to pursue dreams and passions is a lot like having faith and being fearful. At some point, one is going to over shadow the other and consume you. Given when I am in life, I believe this is the currently lesson I am working my way through. 

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 Not Taken-Robert Frost)

In life, we have various points in which we come to a fork in the road. Do we follow the road that everyone else has traveled, the road that is easy to follow. It’s already paved and if full of travelers with the same mind. Or do we take the road less traveled. The road that is not paved and rather lonely. Moving from a comfort zone to a different location was my most recent fork in the road. But it was something I realized I needed to do for me. 

I have deemed my 30’s to be all about me. Learning myself, growing, discovering passions and fulfillment. Some might read this and assume I am only. Being selfish and doing what I want when I want. NOT. Self-fulfillment does not equal selfishness. It is actually self less in all actuality. How can I be all that I need to be for my husband and children and everyone else that depends on me if I do not know myself. How can I help anyone if I cannot help myself. How can I leave a mark and change the world if I don’t know my strengths and weaknesses. 

So I choose me, with all that embodies. I am choosing to figure out who I am and embrace all that comes with that. I am choosing to accept the flaws and do what is necessary to do the work and bring about change in myself. I am making the choice to be, not what someone else feels is right for me. But to be what I think feels right. I am choosing to drown out the noise and focus on me. What are you choosing?