Two Diverging Roads

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 eually lay
In leaves no step had trodden black!
"h, I kept the first for another day#
$et knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back!
I shall be telling this with a sigh
%omewhere 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 Frosts eloquent analogy of two roads diverging in a wood has significance in
the effects of human choices. A single path splits and a choice must be made, which will
determine the travelers journey from then on. This idea can be applied to the development of
people, often growing as small children in similar circumstances, each maing his own choice
of where to tae his life. !t is often difficult to see what effects a different choice would have
made and where one might be had one taen the other path. !t is interesting to e"plore the
paths of two lives, which began on the same road and from there branched their own ways.
#umans, despite what we are often told, are not merely products of their environment, but
may determine the paths of their lives contrary or similar to their upbringings.
$ory $een grew up in %outh &end, !ndiana. As a very young child he lived in the
inner city of %outh &end, but for most of his later childhood lived in the 'country, as it was
called( the outsirts of %outh &end. The 'country was not far from downtown, but was more
lie suburbs.
$ory was always close to his family, and spent a great deal of time with them. #is
was a strong )hristian family who raised him in the Roman )atholic )hurch. #is parents
were very close to each other and to their children. #is mother was a devout woman who
devoted herself to her children, and his father was a pharmacist who wored long hours, but
was supportive of his children and spent time with them when he could. $ory was the middle
child of three children. #e always got along well with his older brother and younger sister,
with the occasion fights to which all siblings are prone.
As a child, $ory was raised in the Roman )atholic faith. #is family attended *ass
every wee. #e went to a )atholic %chool from $indergarten to +ighth ,rade, where he
received education laden with )atholic values. #is school was made up of almost e"clusively
white middle class students. -iversity was uncommon, and he was not e"posed to many
different ways of thining or acting.
As a child, $ory was very involved in sports and similar activities. Athletics were a
constant part of his life. #e also played common childrens games such as #ide.and.%ee,
)ops and Robbers, etc. #e and his friends played on local little league teams every year in
many sports.
$orys life changed drastically when he entered high school. #e changed from
private )atholic school to public school. At first, it was a shoc. /ever before had he been
e"posed the ind of diversity he saw in high school. $ory believes that this new e"posure
triggered a form of personal evolution in him. #e learned new ways of thining and acting
and new world views. #owever, he still held on to his ideas of morality and his religious
faith. Thus, he combined his old ideas with the new and created his own unique personality.
#e was still involved in sports, and played on teams throughout high school. #e also
developed interests in literature, poetry, music, photography, and other arts.
$ory was an e"troverted, outgoing high school student. #e was a popular member of
his class, and by his senior year new and was nown by almost everyone in the class. #e
was involved in student council and volunteer wor in addition to sports teams. #e made
friends easily and had a large number of them.
!n high school, $ory also began to thin about what he might want to do in his career.
#e was drawn to 0harmacy, his fathers profession, because he lied what he saw his father
doing. $ory reali1ed that in his career, he wanted to help people. !n pharmacy he saw the
opportunity to council and aid people, and mae their lives easier. 0eople had become a
central interest in his life.
Today, $ory is a 0harmacy student at 0urdue 2niversity. 3hile he enjoys school, he
loos forward more to being a pharmacist and helping his customers. #e now interns at a
pharmacy to learn the trade. #e has made many friends at college and enjoys spending time
with them and with his family, and now rooms with his older brother. $ory is still involved in
sports and athletics, and plays intramural football and pic.up games of basetball. #e now
considers himself to be a )hristian and his faith is very important to him. #e attends *ass
weely and is involved in a )hurch youth group.

/athan Ainsworth grew up in *adison, Alabama. *adison is located in the northern
part of Alabama. !t is an upper.middle class, ethnically diverse neighborhood. #e had many
neighbors from different states and a few from other countries. *ost of the neighbors were
technically silled worers that designed rocets for /A%A.
The Ainsworth family was an average American family. They were a close.nit
family of four, /athan being the oldest child, that enjoyed doing things together. #e has a
sister that is about four years younger than him, with whom he has a normal brother.sister
relationship( occasional fights, but nothing serious. They were a semi.religious family. #is
mom held religion high in her life, while on the other hand, his father had it lower on his list
of priorities. /athan blames his fathers wor for his lac of interest in the church. /athans
dad usually wored all day long, so he slept whenever he could along with eeping up with
the everyday household duties. #owever, both /athans parents were supportive of their son
and tried to give him all the care and advantages that they could.
/athan went to public schools throughout his education. +lementary school and
junior high school were not some of his favorite times, but he survived. #e was stereotyped a
4nerd5 or 4gee5 for most of that time. #igh school, on the contrary, was more of a pleasant
e"perience. /athan became more involved with his school, but still remaining one in the
crowd. #e was involved with is high school band and 6R7T). This is where /athan
e"panded his interests into military service. Throughout his early education, /athan was not
very popular. 0opularity did not mean a whole lot to him, so he went unaffected.
,rowing up for /athan was nothing unusual. #e was your average adolescent. #is
interests veered more towards solitary things such as video games, boos, and mind
challenging activities. This developed a lot of who /athan is today. !t was not just the
activities alone that helped form him, but the urge to wor alone in general. /athan
developed many of his technical sills through his life of solitude. #is interests and goals are
derived partially from his father, who happens to be an engineer, and his hometown, being
technically oriented.
Today, /athan is more outgoing and into more types of activities. #e has gained
interest for sports such as $arate, and enjoys the presence of others while still maintaining his
need for solitude. #e is also involved in 0urdues chapter for %ociety for )reative
Anachronism, which is a medieval reenactment organi1ation. /athan is a freshman at 0urdue
2niversity, and is on his way to becoming a )omputer +ngineer. #e sees to increase his
nowledge in science and technology, as well as other fields. #e has a rough setch of the
future of his life and nows what he has to do to achieve it. #e is a hard woring individual
that has a desire to succeed.

An idea of $ory and /athans similarities and differences is portrayed by
their respective case studies. They had very similar environments and upbringings, but
became two distinctly different people. $ory became e"troverted and people.oriented, while
/athan became introverted and technically oriented. #owever, many similarities still e"ist
between the two.
&oth $ory and /athan held on to their religious faith and it became an integral part of
their respective personalities. !n fact, they have many religious ideas in common. &oth hold
strongly to their convictions, yet are willing to question their views and consider other
perspectives. &oth were raised in strong )hristian families and taught religious views. As
young children, neithers religious teaching was every challenged by alternative views.
#owever, in their adolescence, both met with alien ideas and reconsidered their thining. This
adversity, in the end, caused each to tae his faith more seriously, to broaden conceptions and
give greater understanding, and to strengthen conviction and devotion. /athan, with all of his
technical interests, became deeply involved in science. *any of his peers and teachers did not
share /athans religious faith and tried to convince /athan to abandon it. #e was forced to
consider seriously his reasons for his beliefs, and in so doing became more stable and
understanding in his faith. $ory, on the other hand, upon reaching high school and being
introduced to new ideas, rebelled against certain aspects of his religious teaching.
!ntroduction to other religious beliefs caused him to loo differently on his own, and he felt
that he had been spoon.fed a limited dogma in his early schooling.
The drive to be successful is strong in both /athan and $ory. +ach has a good idea of
what his goals are and what he needs to do to achieve them. +ach is a hard worer when he
must be, but neither is a woraholic. +ach has fun in his own way, but neither is a party
animal. This may be because both learned responsibility and wor ethic from their respective
religious teachings and from other sources, such as /athans 6R7T) training.
0hysical activity is a necessity for /athan and $ory . &oth are involved in sports and
other physical activities. $ory enjoys the thrill of competition and the drive to succeed while
eeping himself in good shape. /athan, on the other hand, sees to learn new physical sills,
eep himself fit, and improve his coordination and strength.
$ory and /athan have each remained close to his family. +ach sees to spend time
with his parents and siblings. +ach has chosen to follow a vocation similar to that of his father
and thus has much to tal about and learn from him.
As strong as their similarities are, /athan and $ory are two distinctly different
people. +ach reacted differently to similar environments, and thus became his own man. +ach
too a different for from the same path in the woods. $ory and /athans primary difference
stems from the fact that while $ory is more e"troverted and people oriented, /athan is
introverted and tas oriented.
3hile /athan and $ory both have strong drive for success, they have different
definitions of success and different goals. $orys constant goal is to help others. #e wants to
learn to be a pharmacist so that he can accomplish that goal. 3hile /athans goal is also to
gain success in his career, he sees more to create and understand. /athans constant goal is
to improve himself, and most of his effects go toward that end. $ory has always gained
satisfaction from helpings others. #is religious training merely augmented a natural, already
present trait. /athans desire for personal strength and greatness in as many areas as possible
may stem from his religious upbringing and from his military training. As a child, he was
always e"posed to technology and technically silled people, and so it is not surprising that he
would develop interests in science and technical fields.
3hile both are interested in sports and physical activities, the ind of sports they are
involved in differs. $ory, the more e"troverted, is interested in team sports, such as football,
basetball, baseball, etc. #e enjoys woring with others, aiding those less silled than he, and
learning from those greater. /athan is more interested in individual sports, especially in
martial arts. #is strong interest in martial arts may have to do with his military training and
with the emphasis in those sports on individual greatness in both mind and body.
Although two individuals, brought up in similar families with similar bacgrounds
start out alie, they will not always end up the same. !n reading about $ory and /athan you
can see that it is many of the outside influences that affect the way a person will evolve. 8ou
can almost compare this to cloning. !n order for two individuals to be completely the same,
along with having the same genetic information they will have to put through the e"act same
lifestyles. The chances of that happening are very slim. $ory and /athan received similar
upbringings, but it was the influence of different family, friends, and other individuals that
made them different. They might have turned out similar if they were brought up in the same
family and raised the same e"act way, but that still is not 9:: percent sure. $ory and /athan
still have many things in common, but now they are headed into two different lifestyles. +ach
has taen a different road.