Road Less Traveled

Today, I traveled to Point Reyes for the simple pleasure of a long walk. I am also walking to rebuild my health which suffered greatly in my push to prepare for the bar exam. Reflecting back, I wonder if the exam is worth such knashing of teeth or emotional highs and lows or bouts of insomnia. Placing the exam in perspective, albeit a difficult exam, it is simply a hurdle placed in the path of a J.D. who wants to be an attorney. But, again, it is only a hurdle...

Today, I entered the woods in silence. Alone, but not alone for there were some other hikers...It was cool, slightly damp and foggy, but beautiful all the same...

I saw my first California fox. He slipped across my pathway; I glimpsed his tail in my perhipheral vision and I followed him. He stopped in an open field and eyed me. We were both quiet; we watched each other. And, then, he, just as quietly, slipped back into the woods. I felt privileged to have this quiet communication with the fox.

And, then I thought about my life and what brought me to where I am today. It took five long years of evening school to obtain my J.D. - my degree was hard won. My corporation was unappreciative of my educational pursuits. For the first time, my job did not dominate my life.

Today, I have my J.D. and I am saddled with debt. My wage is a fraction of what it was when in my business career. Was it worth it? Should I stop and go back to that same road that I traveled before?

And, then the answer came to me. I had come to a path in the road. One path pointed to upper management in the business world, a world that I know and that I am comfortable in. The other path pointed to a world where I would make far less money but have more meaning in my life. Perhaps this is a naive view of an attorney's job but since leaving my corporate career almost one year ago, I have been involved in supporting an attorney with family law, real estate and personal injury cases, and I have seen the impact that a good attorney can make on his/her clients lives, helping them to resolve issues that they, themselves, are ill equipped to do.

Taking the road less traveled, mid-life, has been extraordinarily difficult. However, I'm looking forward to overcoming this arbitrary hurdle to become a counselor at law because, for the first time in my life, I know that this is what I am meant to do. And, that will make all the difference...

Road Less Traveled

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 onto 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 took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference

Robert Frost