The Road Not Taken

This poem by Robert Frost well expresses my feelings on the topic of today’s prompt.

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.

from The Poetry Foundation

I think the point of the poem is that regret is useless, and that the two roads, which seem so different, in the end are very similar (see the verses: “as just as fair”, “the passing there/ Had worn them really about the same” and “both that morning equally lay”). In my reading, the final line is ironic: “that has made all the difference” meaning, it has made no difference at all, since both roads were more or less the same.

In the same way, I do not feel regret for my past choices, but instead try to focus on the positive outcomes.I feel that the what-ifs only make me miserable, but also stop me from focusing on what it is I can do now to change myself and the world, in order to make things better. So I try to stay away from overthinking about my past mistakes, and instead learn from them without feeling regret and move on.