Ella Grady, Staff Writer

I remember vividly reading this poem by Robert Frost in elementary school. I had never felt a piece of writing so strongly in my bones before, but for some reason, I felt quite attached. 

The Road Not Taken

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.

I have always found enjoyment in reading and writing. Getting my thoughts and feelings on a page is sometimes easier than saying them, and yes, I still love to speak.  When I was young, my response to trouble was always to run to my room and read. I never hated the English section of state testing in Massachusetts, and I was always good at it. I never knew that this foundation would lead me to where I am now. 

Looking back on my very short 22 years of life, I would like to say I have taken the road less traveled by. I was involved in many things in high school; I decided to take the jump and move halfway across the country for undergrad and be just as involved at Xavier. I now set off on my next adventure to earn a master’s in journalism at the University of Texas at Austin(UT), far from the lives that I have built. 

Understanding the length of that next step is the scariest part of doing it. During my time at Xavier, that step was joining Newswire. My goal has always been to go to journalism school after graduation. It has been that way since I used to relay the Patriots’ injury report to my dad from the kitchen while he was a room away; my career in journalism started early. In high school, writing for the student paper rekindled my passion again. 

The first three years of my Xavier career were spent running a non-profit for Xavier Athletics and NIL. Writing the occasional blog post and newsletter was not enough, but it got my foot in the door into the industry. When John Stowell waltzed into my Advanced Organizational Communication course in September of my senior year, I knew it was a sign to get my writing back out there again. I am so glad that I did. 

I took the jump into writing again too late. This was a time when I should have taken the road less traveled much earlier in my career. But I eventually took the step. Now I have published articles, met new people I would have never crossed paths with and will walk across the graduation stage knowing that my work matters to the journalism community. I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to prove myself at UT. 

My Newswire story and articles may be concluded, but my personal one has just started. I am glad to have taken the road less traveled, and I can agree, smiling, that it has made all the difference.