Significance

This journey is real. It hit me yesterday as a number of things finally fell into place. The 123rd Specialist Class will slowly begin shipping out starting today. My classmates heading to Nassau, Suva, San Salvador, Bratislava, I wish you safe travels and best of luck on this new experience! My own day of departure is approaching rapidly. In 10 days, I'm going to be on a plane to China. The reality set in yesterday morning when I went to the Chinese Embassy to pick up my visa. As I opened this little black book with the word "Diplomatic" stamped across the front, I had to stop and pinch myself. Is this real?

The significance of this blog's title comes back to the moment a month or so ago when I realized that this is the right path for me. Someone very close to me read me a few lines from Robert Frost's famous poem. He told me that I was standing at the cross road of those two paths. As I was having trouble deciding if it was the right path, he mentioned that by the time I make my way down this one, I'll look back and be all the better for my decisions. I guess at the time I was still skeptical.

Fast forward a few weeks, and Foreign Service Specialist training was at an end. There I was, sitting among my new peers, my classmates, waiting to get the little miniature flag of my future home. The excitement in the room was palpable: we were all nervously awaiting the announcement that would change the courses of our lives for the next two years. As our class speaker began, my nerves subsided slightly. His humor allayed my fears and helped me relax. But as he spoke in his sweet Irish accent, my thoughts drifted off to exotic new places where I might soon be living. And then I heard it and was brought back to reality instantly...

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both...

He was quoting Robert Frost. Could it be? Yes. This was it. This was the moment I knew I was doing the right thing. The Foreign Service is my calling. I was sorry I couldn't stay here in the US, stay comfortable in Philadelphia...

Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I would be back, but there will be a change. I will have gone places. I will have tread down paths less trodden. Taken chances most others don't have the option to take. And when I get back to home, I can look back and say...

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I finally understood. As I listened, the puzzle pieces of my future fit together just a little bit better. I was amazed that it was so clear this was the right thing for me to do now. Taking this chance has been scary, going abroad alone to take on huge responsibilities. But as I sit here, heading back home to Philadelphia, I realize that when I come back for good to the great city I call home, life will have become different based primarily on the road I traveled down many moments before.

And for that I am so grateful and thankful. For the people who helped me get here. For the opportunities I have been given. For the determination instilled in me to keep trying for my dreams. A brilliant woman I admire once said the following: "I was taught to strive not because there were any guarantees of success but because the act of striving is in itself the only way to keep faith with life." As my life moves forward I will continue striving as this great lady did. Who is she?

The former Madame Secretary Madeline Albright.