THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
Two roads diverged in a yello 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 bend in the undergrowth;
Then the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wantedwear;
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 wrote this poem exactly 50 years ago. He wrote it even as the world was being torn apart by the senseless slaughter we know as World War I.
I believe firmly that Robert Frost gave us all a positive and meaningful guiding principle for the direction of our own lives. And just as he could articulate this philosophy and mean it in the turmoil of 1915, so I repeat the words to you and mean them in the turmoil of 1965.
You have ended your formative years with South Kortright Central School. Once again the faculty and staff will watch a Commencement with feelings of pride and accomplishment, and perhaps even some misgivings for what remains undone.
Commencement for the Class of 1965 will have extra meaning, because this class has been a good one. In academic achievements, in athletic accomplishments, and in constructive cocurricular activities, you have always been well above what might be considered normal.
And here you are. You now face those "two roads . . . in a yellow wood" which Robert Frost talks about. What will your choice be? Robert Frost says he took the road less traveled by, "because it was grassy and wanted wear." He was not afraid to strike off in new directions; directions which were not commonplace. Will you have the courage to do the same in your lives?
But more important, once you have made a decision, will you be strong enough to realize - as did Robert Frost - that you cannot ever return to take the other road? If South Kortright Central School is to have real meaning in your lives, I hope it will be here: that your years here have given you the courage, the insight, and the wisdom to make meaningful decisions for yourselves, and then to have the fortitude to live with those decisions.
Reread the last three lines of Frost's magnificent poem. They are the finest message I could ever pass on to you, and I do so with every prayer for your continued success.
Roy Dexheimer
1965•2
The 1965 Almedian - South Kortright Central School Yearbooks - SKCS 1965 Almedian
