The Road Less Travelled

Growing up as a little boy, I often was surrounded by people who were my seniors. Rather than be with people of same age, I would sit in the midst of these older guys and listen to them as they talk about life, sports, their career, their relationships and the struggles they face on a day to day basis.  My association with these “older guys” to a great extent influenced my thinking and my perception about life and as a result, I almost didn’t have a childhood. Not only was I greatly inspired by these older guys, but I began to have a sense of direction for my life even at that early stage of my development. Although I wasn’t so sure what I wanted from life, but I was so sure of what I didn’t want.

As I grew older and began to meet new people, I began to see life in a new light. Not that I was mature enough to have understood the intricacies and dynamics of life, but as each day passed by, life became meaningful to me. Thankful, God brought my way a gentle man by name Mr. Yomi who mentored me at that early stage of my development and gave me new lenses through which I began to see life. The more time I spent with him, the more I realized I wasn’t created to “fit in” but to “stand out.” And many times when I tried to become like someone else, I only ended up becoming a  "trial version".

In his poem The road not taken, Robert frost said “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference in my life.” 

The "road less traveled" is a path of discovery. It’s a path where you are forced to come to terms with yourself and your God. Not everyone travel along this path because not everyone has the courage to stand out and have to walk alone. It is a lonely path and the farther you go the lesser your crowd becomes because not everyone has the capacity to keep on with you when you are on a journey to discover who you really are. 

I must inform you that along this path are people who know that wearing the crown is predicated on carrying the cross. They are aware of the fact winning the high jump requires one person who can jump seven feet, not seven people who can jump one foot. And the toughest thing about travelling along this path is that you have to keep on moving. The talented don’t always survive this path. It is those who through perseverance, have refused to be daunted by the obstacles along the way, but rather have resolved in their mind to press on in the midst of challenges even as they raise their heads high and see the finish line ahead. Along this path, many things will catch your eye, but only a few things will catch your heart. It is those things that catch your heart you should pursue.

Your potential is really up to you. It doesn’t matter what others might think. There will always be someone out there who will criticize your every move. People will label you as controversial when you don’t think like them or do things the way they expect you to but in spite of what they think about you, or the names they call you, you must remain true to who you really are and never lose yourself while trying to live up to peoples' expectation of you. It doesn’t matter where you come from. It doesn’t even matter what you might have believed about yourself in the past. It’s about what lies within you and whether you can bring it out.

I’m convinced that we live in a time and place with too many opportunities for survival alone. And there’s more to life that mere survival. We need to dream big. We need to step out of the moving crowd and be different. We need to adopt the perspective of someone like playwright George Bernard Shaw who wrote, “Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as bright as possible before turning it over to future generations.”

May I inform you that one of the paradoxes of life is that the things that initially make you successful are rarely the things that keep you successful. So, keep re-inventing yourself. Keep reproducing yourself in other people. Remain open to new ideas and be willing to become a student of life. Become a champion in your thinking. Be better today than you were yesterday. Always believe in yourself even when others don’t believe in you.  Find something you like to do so much that you’d gladly do it for nothing, and if you learn to do it well, someday people will be happy to pay you for it. 

Live your life like you were meant to. Try to see yourself as you could be, not as you are and then do everything in your power to believe you can become that person. Don’t end up like that person whose tomb stone read, “Died at 30, buried at 60.” Don’t allow that to happen to you.

And yes! You can’t travel far in life without God. True are the words of King Solomon when he said, “Trust in God with all your heart. Never rely on what you think you know. Remember God in everything you do, and He will show you the right path to follow.”

Thanks for always taking out of your time to stop by. I appreciate you

Happy New Month folks.

Gracias

Huntly Anabs

Twitter: @huntlya