“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, 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 …” — Robert Frost

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It’s intriguing how often art is mistranslated when washed and rinsed and repeated in popular culture. No example tickles me more than “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost.

The road is a lonely path that we choose to take at great risk, possibly for great reward. So vivid is that image that many readers simply assume the poem is called “The Road Less Traveled.”

It has been misinterpreted time and time again, as the last stanzas spread like a meme across the internet, plastered as cliché sayings and inspirational posters. Not only is it the most misunderstood poem in history, but its misreading is deeply ironic.

The title isn’t about what the traveler did; it’s about what he didn’t do. The oft-quoted, concluding lines of the poem are used to glorify individuality and exceptionalism, but they are actually an ironic commentary on the human tendency to mythologize life experiences.

What does the traveler tell us about the path he did take? Nothing.

Further, having sketched the speaker and his potential choice in all their entangled ambiguity, Frost undermines the idea (with a sly smile) that there is really a choice to be made at all.

I remember my first day in the newsroom as a reporter at the University of Texas at San Antonio’s student newspaper, The Paisano. Up until that day, I thought I wanted to be a poet, too. When I saw my byline printed there — in black and white ink — I was never turning back. I thought I had chosen my road.

In my first editorial published in the Hays Free Press/News-Dispatch, I was proud to tell you, dear reader, my story. My coming and working here in Hays County felt serendipitous, like it was the culmination of all my hard work in journalism for more than a decade — chasing wildfires, covering homicide trials, writing community features, snapping pictures at events and crime scenes, writing through endless nights about school board budgets and so much more. I risked everything for the road I had chosen. And the reward has been great.

But it has now led me to my next adventure. I recently accepted the position of Hays County communications manager. My final day at the newspaper is this Friday, Sept. 29. And while I will miss so much about the Hays Free Press/News-Dispatch — building pages and jamming to music at 5 a.m. in the office by myself, sipping coffee and chatting with sources off the record, marking up pages with red ink, laughing to the point of tears at shared frustrations, simply being on such a fantastic team — that road is leading me on a different path.

I am so excited to continue telling the stories of our community in a different medium. It will definitely be a new challenge for me, but I am positive that I will carry my experiences at the Hays Free Press/News-Dispatch with me, wherever I may land in the future.

In my (albeit brief) time as editor, I hope I’ve written stories that have made you consider issues in a new light. I hope you’ve enjoyed my design and layout style, making the paper more appealing to read. I hope I’ve sharpened the skills and words and stories of the journalists I’ve had the pleasure of working with. I hope you’ve been amused (or perhaps challenged) by my musings in a monthly op-ed and captivated by photographs of events. I hope I’ve had the pleasure of shaking your hand.

My greatest hope, however, is uniquely selfish: I hope I don’t regret leaving my beloved journalism behind. But two roads diverged in a yellow wood. And I am sorry I cannot travel both.

Maybe one day I will look back on these two paths before me that equally lay, equally worn, and “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.”

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Frels is the editor of the Hays Free Press/News-Dispatch. She can be reached at natalie@haysfreepress.com.