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━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ❝ WHAT HOLDS US BACK FROM MAKING THE CHOICES WE TRULY WANT?❞ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
TALIA WALKED INTO her next class along with Iris, a mutual friend of her's and Bella's. "Poor Bella, I hope she's doing better now." Iris spoke as the two girls found their seats in the second row of the classroom slightly off to the left side. "I miss her sometimes."
"She's doing good. Her friends over there are helping out." Talia replied not trying to give away too much information about Bella's mental health state.
"Oh, that's good! It's nice that she has someone to lean on." Iris responded taking out her notebook and pen before focusing on the prompt she had to finish last night.
Talia minded her own business taking out the notebook she needed for the class. Her attention was focused on the title of a poem written on the whiteboard: the road not taken. She wrote down the title on her notebook and waited for students to sit in their seats as the bell rang.
The teacher, Mrs. Sandoval, was a passionate woman in her late forties, known for weaving life lessons in her lectures. Talia loved coming to her class always participating in class discussions and asking questions. "Good afternoon, class," she greeted going through the attendance quickly, "today we are resuming on learning how to annotate and analyze poems in literature. Does anyone know what this poem is about? Who wrote it?" Mrs. Sandoval pointed at the title of the poem.
Everyone was silent including Talia who had forgotten to read the poem the day before. "It's by Robert Frost." A voice behind her spoke up sending goosebumps down her back. "The poem is up to interpretation but the main theme is about choices and individualism. What path is right for you."
The teacher smiled pointing at the boy behind Talia, "yes! Nice one Xavier." Talia shifted in her seat, her fingers playing with the corner of her notebook remembering that she shared the class with her ex boyfriend. "Sometimes the path we want to take is not the one others expect us to choose. Family, friends, partners, society — they all have their ideas of what's best for us. But here's the thing about choices: no one else lives with them but you. No one else walks in your shoes, feels what you feel, or dreams your dreams."
Iris glanced over at Talia before nudging her elbow, "you good?"
Talia nodded, though her throat tightened.
Mrs. Sandoval paced slowly. "Frost writes, 'Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.' But the truth is, the 'less traveled' road isn't always the easiest. It's uncertain, unfamiliar, sometimes even terrifying. But that doesn't mean it's the wrong choice."
