2011: New Year, New Roads

 Happy 2011! I have decided to start this New Year with a blog to chronicle 2011, a year that will be filled with exploration. The blog title is inspired by one of my favorite poems The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. The final stanza of the poem states,

“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.”

Frost artfully describes diverse opportunities, the challenge of considering choices, the courage needed to take chances, and the moments and choices that matter. He captures the possibility and the difficulty of choosing paths, as well as the beauty of the choice. It is with new roads and this spirit of thoughtful choice, hope, and possibility that I begin this year and this blog.  

This year for me will be about differences, starting with two different shades of blue: deep, royal Duke blue and light sky Carolina blue. I am a part of the Robertson Scholars Program, an incredible scholarship and leadership development program created by Julian Robertson and his family that supports students at Duke and UNC Chapel Hill. As a part of this program, Robertson Scholars have “dual citizenship” at both universities, and during the spring of our sophomore year, we all switch campuses and live at our “sister campus.” So when I finished exams at the end of December, I packed up my room and moved out of Duke. My new dorm at UNC is down 15-501, exactly 10.2 miles away. This may not seem very far, but the distance is in some ways substantial, particularly during basketball season.  

I invite you to join me this year. My journey begins today in Massachusetts and will take me to Chapel Hill, Durham, Costa Rica, South Africa, and Ecuador, among other places J

2011: New year, new roads, and countless new friends and opportunities….

A beautiful cranberry bog in Cape Cod near my grandparents' house