Stand to be alone

The famous poet Robert Frost is one of the favorite poets among my siblings and I. His poem "The Road Not Taken" was included in the literature component in Malaysia's high school syllabus. Thus, all three of us were quite familiar with that poem.

Although I did not take the poem very seriously when I had to study it, I now understand how much it means to me. Sometimes, you just have to age a little bit before you understand something that you read.

"The Road Not Taken" talks about choosing the road that most people never took, and also making the decision to be yourself although you might become extremely lonely. For me, it has a deeper meaning to it. It means that in order to succeed as a person, you have to be able to stand to be alone, that means you have to endure the pain of being quite isolated in your dreams sometimes, because everyone is unique. It is because people tend to follow each other like sheeps that they never realize who they are in the end...or sometimes, even lose a whole lot about their own personality and individuality in the process.

I myself have always thought I am queer. I never fit in. And of course, I realized in time that it is pretty dumb to fit in. Because you never will. The only thing you can do is to search for similarities between people, and thus learn to live with each other. Not to sacrifice your special qualities to become just like everyone else. And so, I never tried to impress people after that. Although I felt like I was doing the right thing, I always feel quite lonely in this path.

So, in a nutshell, to really come out strong, you have to learn to be lonely first. Then, you will succeed by becoming the person you can be, and also letting others appreciate you for who you are, instead of just another stereotype.