To love or not to love....

Life is about choices. And choices determine the life you lead, be it an exciting one, dull, extravagant, complacent….

Since at a young age, we learnt to choose. Parents, teachers, families and friends guide us and influence us in making those choices. Barbie or Barney?? Mr. Incredible or Spiderman? The missionary school closer to home or the elite boarding school down south?? Monash or UM? Honda or Proton? The hunkable hunk Casanova or the boy next door? The Miss Saigon or Waheeda-look-alike?

Every choices made is like gambling, like playing poker, taking a risk. You have to decide the next move, even though you know, you`re still far from the winning streak. How much to bet? To draw or not? To stop playing or continue the game?

We can weigh all the risk and benefits, the pros and cons. You consider every options and possibilities. You search every cracks and crannies, and detail every loopholes and escape doors. But we`ll never know the results until the end, sometimes when the end is just a tad bit too late.

It might be the wrong choice from the very beginning. It might be a good choice, for others, but a bad one for you. I`ve had my fair share of bad choices. Some didn`t live up to my expectations. Some were complete disasters. To take up TESL or medicine? To go to UK or study locally? To specialize or not? To say yes to him or no? To stride ahead or sulk in self-pity? But I think what is more important is to face the music, learn from it, move on and be wiser in making more sensible decisions in the future.

On the contrary, life can offer lots of wonderful surprises too. A choice made can make such a big difference, a big impact on our lives. But to make that choice, is a choice by itself

I`ve always loved this poem. It helped me when I get stuck at that same path, again and again. I`m not so much a risky person, but I did take the path less trodden couple of times around. Now, i`m feeling that déjà vu all over again, trying to make, yet again, a big choice in my life.


The Road Not Taken
By 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 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..