The Road Not Taken

We miss those paths which we do not travel

Asad Ullah Khan
3 min readJan 8, 2022

“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)

It is always the road you do not take, which you regret, please do not take this post as a motivational post, this is not what the intent is. I am writing this with the intent to present what happens as you get more exposure, what thoughts incur to you, how perspectives keep changing.

When I was in my bachelor’s, I used to attend a lot of conferences, public meetups, and events. Even after doing it for years, when I had to wake up early to leave for another city for a meetup (or any event) all the passion and interests aside, at that moment it was always the hardest to leave the comfort of my bed and room (UET hostels have a special dose of sleep, even if you do not sleep for more than 6 hours in your home, here you sleep for more than 8 hours). Having said this, all the events and conferences I have attended, there is none about which I would say now that I wish I had not attended, and I should have spent that time sleeping.

On the contrary, the things I missed have haunted me ever since, the class trip I missed, the society events I could not attend, I miss them a lot.

The intent of writing this? To tell you that the passion you would follow, and fail, would be a lot better than the one which you never tried. I had dreams I did not achieve after years of efforts, but I tried, I did every bit of an effort I could, I did till the last drop of my blood, did not achieve them. A little bit upset when I remember those dreams? Yes! I am, regret that I could not achieve them? No!

Trust me on this, regret is worse than failure.

A rainy night in UET Taxila, the place where I discovered myself

And there is another side of it as well. You have got to try your passion at least once to know if it is truly your passion or not? Yes, you heard it right, we often have goals and passions we want to achieve which we have never even tried. You love travelling, you think you are born for travelling but have you ever travelled? Have you faced the pains which accompany travelling? Have you had sleepless night on a mountain, stuck and lost? Have you left the comfort of your home yet?

Another example maybe? You want to be a successful businessman, but have you ever tried to build a business, you do not want to work 9–5 job because you want to be happy in life and spend time with your family, but have you started a business so that you know in business there are no weekends, and you work 24/7 in initial 5–7 years. Did I say 24/7 theoretically? No, you live your business all day and night long, no rest in daytime, no sleep at night (because you are building it in your dreams as well). So, you want that or not? Are you willing to marry the pains of your passion or not? If yes, then go and try it. If not, leave it, it is not your passion.

So, the path not taken right? Yes, the path not taken, if you never venture for your passion or want to do it late in life, after you get a stable life, it is not going to happen, you must travel the road right now to find out if it is your passion or not. If it is not and you find out about it very late, what then? No vision in life, no passion?

“It is always the road not taken which haunts you, the roads taken, take you somewhere beyond”

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Asad Ullah Khan
Asad Ullah Khan

Written by Asad Ullah Khan

A Mechanical Engineer and an Aspiring Writer.

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