April 25, 2010

• My First Trip To New Haven..

  

  I remembered something on my recent trip to New Haven..

  I realized that it wasn't my first trip to New Haven.

  My first trip occurred years before I even considered graduate school. In high school, I (somewhat unwillingly) joined a Chinese tour group, and visited famous Ivies. One school, in particular, stood out on my mind.  Constructed in Neo-Gothic architecture, the sandstone-colored buildings and open courtyards portrayed a powerful, yet serene and inviting atmosphere.  I remember walking down a corridor of trees, falling in love, and whispering: I will come back.

  

  But memories of this school started to fade as the years passed. The harshness of reality and the difficulty of life made me a much more realistic person. I didn't even bother applying to this school for college. 

  When I returned to New Haven this time, I found myself walking down that same corridor.  I retraced my footsteps, laughed quietly, and astonishingly realized that I've returned to a promise once made.

  

  Sometimes, I am truly amazed by the fortuities of life.

  
  

  ---

  the road not taken
  robert frost

  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 shall 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 road less traveled by
  and that has made all the difference.
  

  ---

  Frost's poem, "The Road Not Taken" expresses my exact sentiments about attending school here.

  I once memorized this poem for a speech in high school and, even though I didn't quite understand it back then, I've always thought that it contained a dual meaning.

  Back then, I believed that this poem encourages people to take the "road not taken," and promises that choosing this road will lead to wonderful outcomes. 

  Now, I truly understand and appreciate its air of uncertainty.

  "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"
  When Frost first looked down the two roads, he thought that one path was less taken than the other.  But as he took steps down that path, he realized that both paths were about the same.

  "oh, i kept the first for another day,
  yet knowing how way leads on to way,
  i doubted if i shall ever come back"
  Frost starts to express a bit of regret here.  He knows that his path is not necessarily "less taken," so he want to take the first path too.   Unfortunately, he's kind of stuck on his second path..  and he knows that he can't go 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 road less traveled by,
  and that has made all the difference"
  What kind of sigh is this? A sigh of accomplishment and happiness? Or a sigh of regret and longing?
  What kind of "difference"? A good difference? Or a bad one?
  He doesn't know - he can't see that far into the future, he can't see past the bend in the road.  All he only knows that his choice is significant - that he will be sighing and thinking about it somewhere down the road of life. He doesn't know whether it will be a sigh of accomplishment, or a sigh of regret. He doesn't know whether it will be a good difference or a bad one.

  And neither do I.
  

  ---

  Do you know this poem? What do you think it means?

  • 4:40 am
  • 6 Comments