Don’t Choose Easy
In High School I wasn’t a very good student. I looked for ways to avoid studying and since I had many other gifts and talents I procrastinated on my studies. Ironically, in my final year of High School I used athletics as an escape from some difficult parts of my life and I failed a course because I didn’t put enough effort into my schooling. This put me in a position where I wasn’t able to graduate with all of my friends because I didn’t have enough course credits. Doors closed because of this failure, athletic scholarships were taken away and the pursuit of playing varsity basketball or track dried up. That was a really low point in my life – lots of embarrassment and self-doubt. Luckily, I went back to High School for one semester and got the course that I needed and I was accepted into University the following September. I was thrilled to enter the world of academia and to be accepted because it made me feel adequate. While I enjoyed the social part of my University year I hadn’t chosen the right courses and I was not engaged in my learning. During this year I also experienced a personal trauma and this made me unable to continue my studies.
For many years I thought that formal education was out of my reach. I watched those around me obtain their university and college degrees and go on to pursue higher learning but I never imagined that I would have the same opportunity.
Five years ago I was at a turning point in my life. I suspect the turning point had much to do with watching my dear friend die of a brain tumor. In the early days of her illness we talked about lost opportunities, about the various paths that we had chosen and we ruminated over Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Less Travelled”. My friend suggested that maybe I needed to choose a new path and part of that path should include completing my university degree. Going back to pursue my education was a tough decision because there had been lots of pain and failure involved with university. Often we obsess over perfection and we want to get it right the first time and we aren’t willing to “go back into the arena”. Surprisingly, when I started university again, it was magical. At Bluffton University I met a fantastic cohort of people who embraced me and became both my friends and my classmates. My professors were authentic individuals who taught me to think critically and I wrote a lot of essays and my writing became cathartic.
What I know for sure…we all have opportunities to choose different paths in life. Sometimes a decision seems straight forward and other times it feels overwhelming. For me, the decisions that have made the most impact on my life have been the ones where I didn’t choose easy. After my friend’s death, I had Robert Frost’s poem made into a plaque and I continue to live out these words – “two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference”.
Awesome! I wish you the best!