Two roads diverged in a yellow wood … I remember being drawn to Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken, for the first time when I was planning my high school salutatorian speech in May 1986. My goal was to include these sentiments in my speech to inspire my fellow classmates and to advise our friends and families that our future was without limits. My advice at the time? Blaze a trail! Leave your mark on this world! Nothing is going to stop us now! (Of course I needed to throw In a cheesy 80s lyric reference.) However, when analyzing this particular poem during an English class in college, I learned that Mr. Frost was throwing in a bit of irony and was using this particular poem to thumb his nose at critics and assert in ink that he would not publicly call out the errors of his ways or regrets of life choices. So, as I begin this blog I have the same poem in mind although my sentiments at this juncture in my life are more aligned to Mr. Frost’s true intentions.
I am currently traveling on a journey down a new, uncharted path. In December 2013, I left Bakersfield, CA – a place I had called home for nearly 24 years – to move to Downey, CA – an incorporated area southeast of downtown Los Angeles. I accepted a position with LA County Office of Education as a consultant to RSDSS (Regional System of District and School Support). (In education, we love our acronyms!). With all three of my kids in college (yes, your read that right – all three!), I am a very proud Mama Bird with an increasingly empty nest. I do find myself not only on the untraveled path of a new job and location but also this new path of an empty nest and with that a transition from parenting teenagers to young, inpendent adults. The road I am currently on is not only unfamiar and untraveled but also is enveloped in a think, soupy fog that makes trust in the choice of path often difficult. While slightly less known to those who know me both personally and professionally, I have made this move/transition with my good friend, Thomas, so there are parts of this journey down this path where I am not entirely alone.
Stay tuned as I tell of his journey and experience as I continue to travel down yet another road not taken …
Two freeways diverged ... 