Dispatches from the Road Less Traveled

In his poem The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost writes of approaching a fork in a woodland path, and preferring to venture the road less traveled. As he muses that he may someday return and try the other fork as well, he acknowledges ruefully that “knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.”

Decisions are like that, one leading to another and then another, like forks in a road. What’s exciting is that each time you choose a path, you impact the outcome of your life. Different choice - voila - different life. You’ll never know what might have been, but with each conscious decision comes the profound understanding that every choice you make in life is meaningful.

Over time, however, way can lead on to way sometimes without you noticing it. For years. Decades even. You graduate from school, get married, maybe have some children, get a job that becomes a career path. Soon your choices seem limited by the scope of the life you have chosen. Or rather the habits you have fallen into - and then you just don’t think about making choices at all anymore. But complaisance and inertia are choices as well, although not always conscious ones. As John Lennon said “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

I’ve spent much of my adult life doing the expected, rarely daring to step off the broad boulevards and traverse the unfamiliar byways. Now that I’m in the midst of what my sister calls my mid-life crisis, however, all that has changed. At 42, I’ve divorced my husband, sold my car, left my job and career behind, dipped deep into what “should” be my retirement savings, and embarked on a 3-month European adventure. All in order to fulfill my lifelong dream of traveling the world (or at least a corner of it) and experiencing it fully, not as a tourist, but a true traveler.

To all the naysayers who warn that I’m being foolish and reckless, and remind me that I can travel later when I retire and have saved enough so that I won’t have to worry about finances, I would suggest that this trip is every bit as important an investment in my future as a financial one. If your experiences make up the sum of who you are, then you would be wise to invest early and generously in order to earn compound interest. Its fine to begin experiencing the world later, just don‘t expect to earn quite as many dividends. For the people you meet, the experiences you have, and the insight you gain into the world and yourself while on the road not only enrich your life and your outlook, but can lead you on paths you never expected, presenting extraordinary opportunities. As a friend reminded me recently, the trip you take at 20, 30 or even 40 is very different from the one that you will take when you are 60 or 70.

I believe in the transformative power of travel. It can be life changing - inspiring new careers, sparking romances, even challenging long-held beliefs. Travel should make you think. It should be provocative. The sooner you embark, the more far-reaching the result, reaping exponential returns for those willing to make the investment in their lives.

If I'm lucky, the investment I make in these travels will not only set me on the course of a new career (writing), but also serve as the foundation for a book - a glimpse of which I will be sharing with you through this blog. Wish me a Bon Voyage!