"The Road Less Traveled"

For you, the Class of 2010. This weekend, I attended a number of parties for either future graduates of upcoming ones. Some were casual, others formal. All were exciting and fun, while at the same time being thought provoking. Something I hardly expected. One, in particular, was especially striking to me. At the close of this party, when the guests began to file out in the slow procession one often sees as a party begins to wind down, a grey man, an old family friend, (slightly bent with age and beard/ mustache combo that would make Marx or ZZ Top proud) took a chair and climbed it. After quietly calming the cacophony of incoherent babbling, he asked all the Seniors, those graduating in this year, 2010, to step forward. We did. He eyed us all, making sure to meet each person's gaze. His eyes shone with a brightness that betrayed the young spirit trapped in a withering body. Clearing his throat, he spoke: "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. Despite myself, I teared up. Something about the moment was so special. Maybe it was the way his eyes locked with mine and the way it seemed he was speaking directly to our hearts. If you'd had known him, and you had seen him, you might have got a little teary too. There was nothing but kindness and whole-hearted honesty in his words, and from that alone you could tell he only wanted the very best for us. So to the Class of 2010, my classmates and my friends, good luck wherever the path of life takes you, and God bless. May you find the strength to take the road less traveled.