How to read this one:
1) see the poem 'The Road Less Traveled' by Robert Frost and read; this is the starting page of sorts
2) continue on and read the insight into me, taken from my last year in undergrad at university.......
“Don’t put off till tomorrow what can be enjoyed today.”
Josh Billings
Ever since I was younger, I have walked the road less traveled. I have never had to try hard academically and I have always managed to do well. You may be thinking how lucky I have been but I have also never been just one of the crowd. When you are younger, you want to fit in and when you can’t, it changes the very world you live in. I have always been the smart girl, which only holds currency among your elders. To my peers, I have always been the fat one. A label that means I have always been the kid who has been picked on, the kid who goes home crying and the kid who learns not to stand out – to blend in to the background as much as possible and not be noticed.
No surprise that my first semester here (university) was spent with an unvarying routine – class, home, study. I rarely spoke up in class. I did not want to know people and I did not want people to know I was different. I wanted to walk along that road that everyone goes down. I wanted to follow. But life happens, no matter how much you try to avoid it. I went through so many trials during my second semester at UM that I was ready to give up but summer brings a form of redemption. I did not have to face the tribulations of college and by fall, I was ready for whatever would come.
My second year at UM, also my junior year, found me at a crossroads somewhere in my own personal woods. I was not sure whether I wanted to continue the path I had been on or if I wanted to start on a new path. I resolved to step onto an alternative route, a path I had never taken in my life. But new paths mean uncertainties and fears. Yet I decided to stand out and so I joined COISO (council of international students and organizations). It was not that radical a step, at least in my mind. I could be with people I understood, people who were not that different from myself and maybe, I could just be one of the crowd. Besides, I argued, I could always turn back if the path seemed too weary and wondrous. I could quit and sink into the backdrop again.
However, taking that first stride works its magic upon you. It makes you a little more yourself. Maybe it was the people that I met along the way or the experience of just being in an environment with others who choose to stand out and be different, people who refuse to wander off into nothingness, but I changed and I kept moving onwards. My list of activities grew and I started to nurture my inner self that I had always denied. I nursed my caring side and became a peer counselor, I joined Student Government to be heard and I received every honor and distinction that came my way as recognition of what I had personally achieved in such a short time. Every activity included a diverse set of people, a different way of being, but every single one highlighted and built upon differing aspects of myself. Despite this, one concept has always come into play in every moment of my day and that is my willingness to face any obstacle and surmount it. I refuse to be beaten down by challenges and cower into a type of insignificance since I have started walking my path.
And now I seem to have the spotlight on myself. Every where I venture, people know me by name, face or reputation. I admit it has not always been the best renown and the road has not always been as straight or as easy as I imagined it to be once I started along it but it has always been good. I have not regretted any of the things I have done. I have not always walked this path alone but I have always walked it for myself. And I hope to always walk along this cluttered path because it has made me who I am and can only guide me even further in who I am to become. Yes, I may still veil myself in obscurity, never being a president or chair of any of my involvements, but at least I know I am still being true to myself.
In the end, I have not been the first one down this road. There have been leaders before me and there will be leaders after me but the most important thing has been accepting that path. By stepping on to the road less traveled, I made a step towards accepting who I am “and that has made all the difference.”
1) see the poem 'The Road Less Traveled' by Robert Frost and read; this is the starting page of sorts
2) continue on and read the insight into me, taken from my last year in undergrad at university.......
“Don’t put off till tomorrow what can be enjoyed today.”
Josh Billings
Ever since I was younger, I have walked the road less traveled. I have never had to try hard academically and I have always managed to do well. You may be thinking how lucky I have been but I have also never been just one of the crowd. When you are younger, you want to fit in and when you can’t, it changes the very world you live in. I have always been the smart girl, which only holds currency among your elders. To my peers, I have always been the fat one. A label that means I have always been the kid who has been picked on, the kid who goes home crying and the kid who learns not to stand out – to blend in to the background as much as possible and not be noticed.
No surprise that my first semester here (university) was spent with an unvarying routine – class, home, study. I rarely spoke up in class. I did not want to know people and I did not want people to know I was different. I wanted to walk along that road that everyone goes down. I wanted to follow. But life happens, no matter how much you try to avoid it. I went through so many trials during my second semester at UM that I was ready to give up but summer brings a form of redemption. I did not have to face the tribulations of college and by fall, I was ready for whatever would come.
My second year at UM, also my junior year, found me at a crossroads somewhere in my own personal woods. I was not sure whether I wanted to continue the path I had been on or if I wanted to start on a new path. I resolved to step onto an alternative route, a path I had never taken in my life. But new paths mean uncertainties and fears. Yet I decided to stand out and so I joined COISO (council of international students and organizations). It was not that radical a step, at least in my mind. I could be with people I understood, people who were not that different from myself and maybe, I could just be one of the crowd. Besides, I argued, I could always turn back if the path seemed too weary and wondrous. I could quit and sink into the backdrop again.
However, taking that first stride works its magic upon you. It makes you a little more yourself. Maybe it was the people that I met along the way or the experience of just being in an environment with others who choose to stand out and be different, people who refuse to wander off into nothingness, but I changed and I kept moving onwards. My list of activities grew and I started to nurture my inner self that I had always denied. I nursed my caring side and became a peer counselor, I joined Student Government to be heard and I received every honor and distinction that came my way as recognition of what I had personally achieved in such a short time. Every activity included a diverse set of people, a different way of being, but every single one highlighted and built upon differing aspects of myself. Despite this, one concept has always come into play in every moment of my day and that is my willingness to face any obstacle and surmount it. I refuse to be beaten down by challenges and cower into a type of insignificance since I have started walking my path.
And now I seem to have the spotlight on myself. Every where I venture, people know me by name, face or reputation. I admit it has not always been the best renown and the road has not always been as straight or as easy as I imagined it to be once I started along it but it has always been good. I have not regretted any of the things I have done. I have not always walked this path alone but I have always walked it for myself. And I hope to always walk along this cluttered path because it has made me who I am and can only guide me even further in who I am to become. Yes, I may still veil myself in obscurity, never being a president or chair of any of my involvements, but at least I know I am still being true to myself.
In the end, I have not been the first one down this road. There have been leaders before me and there will be leaders after me but the most important thing has been accepting that path. By stepping on to the road less traveled, I made a step towards accepting who I am “and that has made all the difference.”
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