The Road Not Taken
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 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.


Is this poem a mocking look at whether our choices really do make a difference in our lives, or is it a true and philosophical assessment of how much control we actually have in terms of our future? I refer back to this poem quite often in discussions because I personally believe that incidences in our lives are meant to be, and the choices we make are the ones we are meant to make in order to reach certain avenues or pit stops along the way of this adventure of life. This poem pops up in my mind on this particular day and week of my life because almost three years ago, I chose to walk down a different road. I said goodbye to teaching and stepped off the edge of the cliff of certainty and tumble down to heavens knows where. I landed in a body of water that I treaded for quite a long time as I waited and tried desperately to decipher where I was meant to be and what I was meant to do.

Funny thing is, I swam to a different edge and got out of the water recently…back onto land, back into certainty. I accepted a career opportunity of a lifetime, or at least I think it is, one that puts me back into the role I know best: teaching. Only this time, I get to work solely with adults. No grading of papers. No angry parents. No unsupportive administration. No miniature paychecks. I’ve stepped into the corporate world, and some may grown and say, “What are you doing, Jodi? The corporate world is boring; job security is lagging, and freedom of creativity is nonexistent.” I beg to differ, though. I believe I managed to find my niche in the corporate world, and I feel quite blessed to have happened upon it quite by accident and without a bunch of background experience that one would expect I would need in order to be accepted for such a position.

It all began with a simple referral from a friend whose son I used to tutor. So when they state that networking is the key to employment, I really believe it because without this person’s help (and without my decision to request his help), I would not have found out about this job. Before me, the department has not hired outside of the company, so this was a new experience for them. I digress though. I called the woman I was supposed and was told, after she examined my resume, that I wasn’t the right person for her sales position and that my background seemed more suited to human resources and that there was a part time position available at that very moment. I thought that would be awesome because I wanted to begin tutoring and so working part time would enable that goal to occur. Unfortunately, that position had just been filled that morning, and the woman doing the hiring called me back to notify me not only of that news but also of the fact that a different department of human resources in the same company needed a full time coordinator. She passed my resume along to that department, and I was called in for an interview the following week.

I ended up spending over three hours interviewing with four different people in the department for a human resources coordinator position. But I walked out of there with the vibe and instinct that I would not get the position. During the interview process, though, I was informed of an opening in the education department for a trainer, and the woman thought I would be perfect for the position if they were still looking. She thought they might be trying to hire within the company and could not be for certain that it was still available. I tried to not get my hopes off the ground at all and continued sending out resumes to ads on http://www.monster.com/ (by the way, I never once got a response—other than auto—from anything that I responded to on there, which made me question if all of our resumes and cover letters go into this black hole that just goes by the euphemism “Monster.com”). I also continued to network and stayed in touch with the temp agency, which in the long run I felt cost me my time rather than provided me with opportunities unfortunately.

It turned out that my gut instinct was correct, and I did not receive the coordinator position. I was second in line, but the woman who qualified for the position had human resources experience, and in all honesty, that was necessary for this job. I have no notion of the family medical leave act or sick leave or I-9 forms, and while I could learn all of that, they needed someone to step in and really take control of the job from the get go. I was told, though, that my name and resume were passed along to the education department and to call the vice president in charge of that department. I did…that afternoon. And I received a call the next day while I was interviewing for a Texas state test scoring position that was a temporary project (I got hired for that, ironically, at the same time the vice president was leaving me a message and asking me to come in for an interview). I called her back upon leaving the scoring interview and told her I could come to her office immediately as I was close to downtown anyway. It turned into another three hour interview, and I met with every single woman in the office. They took turns getting to know me and interviewing me and examining my resume and qualifications. It was 6:30 p.m., and I had to move a training appointment with my one figure competitor client to the next day so that I could stay and talk with the vice president further. But the more that I stayed and listened to everyone regarding the office, the vice president, and the position, the more excited I became. This was it. This was my golden opportunity.

Before I left, the vice president called her boss on his cell phone and asked if he would meet with me the next morning. My heart was clamoring to get out of my body and jump up and down in a beating rhythm. I could barely contain myself, but I managed to keep my composure until I walked out of the corporate offices and headed towards my car (which sat in metered parking and managed to escape a ticket since I had miscalculated how long the interview would take; the next day I would not be so lucky). And when I heard the salary range for the position, I nearly choked. About two-thirds more than I was making teaching, tears nearly sprang into my eyes when I thought about what it might be like to regularly put money in savings and not have to live paycheck to paycheck.

I came back to the offices the next day and spent another two and a half hours interviewing and being shown around the office and receiving an explanation of the computer system I’d eventually utilize and teach. It felt quite similar to a first-day orientation session, and when it came time to leave, the vice president and senior manager both stated they would wait for my paperwork and credit/background check to all clear and then give me a call on Monday. Oh my goodness…I had to wait a full weekend for any news! It nearly killed me (and Amanda because it was all I could talk about). My dad said, “You’ll be on pins and needles the whole weekend,” and he was so correct. If you can believe it, though, I still went to an interview for a receptionist position at a title company…just in case.

When Monday came, I kept checking my phone. By the time noon had arrived, I was antsy and nervous. I didn’t know what to make of them not calling me yet, and I began to doubt whether I had gotten the job. The temp agency called and stated they had a $13 an hour job available, and I was honest with the woman (smack me for this, but I couldn’t lie) and told her that I was awaiting news for a human resources position and would know something by the end of the day. I just didn’t want to put all my eggs in one basket and miss out on another opportunity for a job if this one fell through; yet, I had to be honest with the woman.

Well, I went to the gym and trained shoulders very intensely, but I didn’t bring my phone in. I didn’t want to be distracted, and I kind of had the superstition that if I was away from the phone then maybe it would ring. Nope. I rushed out to the car, flipped open my phone, and didn’t see a single message waiting for me. I sighed miserably and drove to the track to do my sprints. Again, the phone sat in the car, but this time, my superstition worked, and when I returned to the car and looked at the phone, there it was. A voicemail. My hands shook while I dialed the numbers and sat in the hot confines of the car, sweat dripping down my forehead and chest from the ten sets of shuttle runs I had just done. I couldn’t get my breathing to slow down, and when the vice president answered, I explained why I was out of breathe (the women in the office get a kick out of my competition experience and my love for working out). She put me on the speaker phone and asked me to do an impromptu speech about something I love and am passionate about. In fact, they asked to hear about fitness and training, so I spent about three minutes talking about the positive aspects of taking care of your body, and when I finished, the two women both said, “Wow!” See, my position will require that I talk on the phone for web conferencing courses, and they wanted to check one last time that I could breathe enthusiasm, fire, and personality even through the phone lines, and I succeeded!

Then the delicious words that I so desperately wanted to hear came through to me: “We’d like for you to join our team.” I was speechless. Seriously. And the salary was announced to me, and I nearly cried again. The amount may not seem like a ton to some people, but to a former teacher, it was music to my ears. A few technicalities, like a drug test, were in order, and then I was officially on board, and the results came back today, the vice president called, and stated, “You’re in!”

So what is it that I’m doing, you ask? They’re still working on my title, but it’s something along the lines of assistant manager of education and development technologies. My responsibility in this corporate human resources office is to train other employees within the company computer skills and soft skills (like business relationships and successful sales, etc.). And so I’m right back to where I started. Sort of. I’m teaching again, just in a new atmosphere…one with stability, longevity, and growth.

Who knows where this road will lead me. But if I hadn’t have stepped off the beaten path in the first place, I would never have found myself traipsing along this particular road in my life. And when I look at how events have transpired in my life in the past couple of years and examine the turns I’ve made and the steps I’ve taken, I know that this was all meant to be.

I can barely contain my excitement. A new chapter in the diet and training plan this week (only 15 weeks until my first show of the year). A new apartment next Tuesday. A new job next Wednesday. A new competition season. A new future in all.

Jodi