Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
Took the road more taken; then, I changed my mind, turned around and that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” resonates with many people; we all know we make decisions and eliminates certain paths during the course of our life.
However, in real life, too many times we end up on the wrong path; we get stuck, complacent, and don’t want to “waste” all the effort we put into going down a certain rode. We take the road more taken because it seems like a good idea, or we’re peer pressured into thinking it’s for us.
But turning around on a path that wasn’t for us, cutting our losses, and going back to the path less take ultimately allows us to continue becoming our best, and happiest, self. Changing my life path was a difficult thing for me to do. As a pre-medical student at Saint Louis University, changing majors initially felt like failure. But I ultimately decided to pursue a career in which I could find joy everyday and dismantled the unrealistic expectations that I had set for myself.
Growing up, enjoying the outdoors while riding horses was my favorite hobby; an incredibly freeing and exciting feeling arose whenever I got back on a horse and flew through hills, forests, prairies, and old corn fields. When I wasn’t riding I was reading books about horses, exploring the outdoors, and epic science fiction novels. Although I found comfort in riding horses and reading, as I got older and entered into highschool I spent less and less time on these things. I was busy educationally preparing myself for a successful professional career as a doctor and no longer had time for my childhood hobbies. I studied and read for the sake of completing tasks, checking off boxes so I could go off to college and beginning bigger and better things. I saw myself becoming a doctor, helping countless sick people and finding purpose and fulfillment through this kind of career.
However, once I began college, I soon realized the same routine of studying, reading, and checking boxes continued. I didn’t enjoy or find fulfillment in my classes, because they were a means to an end (and an end no where in sight). After three semesters of intensive course work, I was drained and no longer felt motivated to be a doctor and “save the world”. I wanted to find the same fulfillment that I so innocently possessed as a child, able to read and gain knowledge, ultimately achieving a sense of reward for my individual accomplishments, and not for the sake of checking a box.
I began spending more time reflecting on what made me happy and realized being outdoors and exploring mysterious things were two of my primary motivators; after googling around, I realized national parks hired tour guides, scientists, and teachers to manage the parks and help guests more fully engage with their surroundings. These employees often they had degrees in geology, geography, biology or environmental science. In the span of a week, I had dropped my pre-medical Heath Science degree and enrolled in three environmental science classes. I hadn’t felt so free or overjoyed since I was a kid riding horses in the fields of IL.
Changing my life path was a difficult thing for me to do; most college students do switch majors, but I had created the unrealistic goal for myself of needing become doctor to change the world and help people. I wasn’t able to achieve the same kind of childhood joy everyone should experience in their career until I let go of my expectations and embraced my true calling as an environmental scientist. I now argue that I help more people as an environmental scientist, providing knowledge on sustainable and healthy water supply management for drinking water resources. Although I struggled to find my right path, I managed to still fulfill my goal of “saving the world” and simultaneously live a happy, adventurous life doing science in the outdoors. It’s a personal tragedy when we do not allow ourselves to be flexible and forgiving of ourselves for not finishing down some path. The beauty in life is that we get to experience a changing world and we should show ourselves compassion when we hit rumble strips, turn-abouts, and dead ends — because no matter the struggle, we continue down some road, becoming our best, and happiest, self
