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Thursday, December 12, 2013

Two Roads Diverged In A Wood

I missed yesterday's blog challenge because I got super busy with work and Christmas Shopping, but I really really really love this prompt so I'm going to write about it instead of today's promt.

Tell us about a time you took the less traveled path.

This is pretty much the story of my life and I know my mom is probably rolling her eyes and nodding her head as she reads this.  My sister too.

No matter what guidance I have been given, no matter who it comes from, I have always done things my own way and in my own time.   Taking the path less traveled has kind of been my way of life for as long as I can remember.  Sometimes it has definitely been to my detriment because my own stubborn and hard head has not headed the wisdom that was offered to me.  But there have been other times, lots of times, when it has taken me on some pretty awesome adventures and brings me some great happiness.

I vaguely remember always being defiant and going against the grain when I was in school.  My mom can probably assist more on this in the comments.  I don't really remember a lot of my early childhood.  I played with barbies (totally normal) but my barbies were frontier pioneer women barbies.  They rode horses and made shelter and had adventures.  My barbies didn't drive a car, they drove a horse carriage that (with some 6 year old ingenuity) doubled as a covered wagon.  They didn't go shopping.  They fought and survived and tamed wild horses.

I remember always getting in trouble because I would roll and crawl around in the gravel on the play ground at school and it would get my jeans dirty and I kind of remember my mom giving up on dresses once I discovered scissors.

Side story: When I was in....1st grade I think, I decided that all of my dresses should have fringe on them.  So I used my school scissors to cut fringe in the hems of all my dresses.  I also decided that my bangs were not cut the way I liked, so I cut them myself.  And then I decided that I didn't like the seat belt in my moms car so I cut half way through it before she saw.  So if you ever wondered why it's such a big deal to elementary schools that you only buy scissors that will cut paper...there ya go.

Junior High is also kind of vague, but I definitely remember that I didn't want to be just like everyone else.  I was SUCH and awkward ugly duckling and I did NOT get along with the "preppy" girls.  And because I didn't like them, I didn't want to look anything like them.  Doc Martins were popular at the time.  I didn't want anything to do with them because preppy girls wore them and I didn't want anything like what they had.  Capri pants and button downs were coming in style for my age group.  NOPE.  Didn't want anything to do with it.  I wore jeans and super oversized t-shirts to school every day for a week before my dad was like... "Ok, that's enough."  I remember the battle that ensued between my mother and I at the mall.  It's not that I had anything against the clothes themselves.  I was completely against the type of people who wore them.

Seriously, what kind of 12 year old thinks like that?

High school was a similar version to junior high, only the pendulum swung in the other direction.  Most everyone else was unmotivated and wanted to half-ass school and just live in our home town their whole lives.  So I wore pretty much business casual cloths to school for the last couple years of school.  Slacks and heels and button downs every day.  I often was mistaken for a teacher by younger or new students.  I kicked butt in school got great grades, volunteered a lot and pretty much didn't spend any time with kids my own age outside of school except for when I was with my best friend in my grade.

There are probably a million other examples that escape me at the moment.  I'd love to see what my mom and sister might comment on this post.

A more recent example.  I recently moved.  I was living in town.  Not a super metropolitan area like Dallas or Austin, but the biggest city around and I moved about 50 miles outside of town to an old farm house.  And I LOVE it.  I feel safe, for one thing.  I don't have to wonder about who's walking up and down my street at night.  And when you live in town, sure there are bad areas, but no area is any safer than another when it comes to break ins and robberies.  The nicer neighborhoods get hit just as bad if not worse when it comes to that kind of stuff.

But regardless, I moved.  I'm not so far away that I can't drive into town.  I drive into town every week to run errands and such.  I've heard that it's been a topic of conversation amongst my friends and acquaintances as to why I moved.  To me it seemed the most natural thing in the world.  It's the closest I've been able to find that is similar to the way I grew up and that's what I wanted.  That's what makes me happy.  Feeling at home in my home.  But clearly this is the path less taken for a 26 year old single female with a law degree. This just is not done.  It's gotten to the point where some people have speculated that I moved because I wanted to cut ties with people and relationships.

What rubbish.

I moved because it makes me happy to live where I live and I feel safe and comfortable.  But by no means have I had the desire to cut relationships with people.  I did recently sever several relationships, but those were with people with which a relationship didn't exist to begin with.  And I have found that the people closest to me have kept in touch with me just as if I were living a mile down the street.  We have these things called phones.  They are kind of this revolutionary invention that made communication over distance super easy.

So to all of my family and friends who are thinking that I might be crazy and wondering why I moved way out to the "middle of nowhere."  I did it because that feels like home to me, just like your suburban 3 bedroom house with a 2 car garage and granite countertops and yard with a 8 foot fence on a half acre lot feels like home to you.  I don't make you wrong for living in town.  Don't make me wrong for living in the country.

 - Scarlett

PS.  Just want to give a shout out to Miss Jones, my Wagner, the future Dr. Murray, Nathaniel, and G for staying close despite the distance and thinking that our friendship is worth keeping up as much as I do. :-)

Cliche I know...but its so applicable.

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. 

-Robert Frost

3 comments:

  1. That is really good. Glad you let us see this part of you. Keep up the writing I have plenty of book ideas.
    w

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  2. As I recall...the first grade scissor incident was due to the fact that the teacher was very specific in the type if scissors she wanted the class to have. I thought they were way too sharp for a class that age. You fringed all of your clothes sitting in the front row. This led to a discussion with the teacher. Something like...you wanted her to have them but you're not even paying attention! And I am sure some other words. Then after the seatbelt incident I just took them away.

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  3. She also made a harness for the dog (mini schnauz ) and made him pull a wagon that carried the cat in a cage. He did whatever she wanted. He was also made to do jumping courses that she set up in the yard.

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