Dark, narrow, and eerie was the road to success. It is also the road I chose, the road I am currently walking on, or to be more exact, speed walking on. I’m sure you would be speed walking on this road too if you had to walk on it to get to your destination, and for me, that is success.
You see, ever since I was a youngster, my parents had always taught me to take the hard way out. To this day I remember them saying, “Always remember, taking the hard road always pays off in the end!” Well it never occurred to me that they were talking about an actual road with challenging obstacles and creepy swaying trees. I just thought it was a metaphor and now, as I am walking down the “Hard Road to Success”, I feel as though I have been lied to my entire life. Sure I always heard my parents’ warnings about the “Great Roads of Life”, but no one ever warned me that I would have to choose an actual road to travel on when I turned eighteen! No one told me that the road I chose would determine how I live the rest of my life.
So there we were, all the eighteen year olds of the year, standing before the “Great Roads of Life”. In our months of training, we were told we would have to make the ultimate decision for ourselves. We were not allowed help to make a decision and we also were not allowed visitors during our training for fear of help on making a final decision. Of course everyone who was over the age of eighteen knew which road was the right one but they had all been strictly permitted not to say anything about it. The training was supposed to guide and prepare us on making our ultimate decision, and prepare us for any challenges on our chosen road ahead.
On our last day of training, the last night in our bunk beds, it was quieter than usual. A heavy presence of apprehension and doubt hung over us like a thick blanket floating in the air. The next morning, our trainers woke us at the crack of dawn and instructed us to pack our things and wait outside. We were lead to a giant set of silver gates that opened with a loud “swoosh”. Two roads going in opposite directions lied behind the silver gates. The road to the left was bright, full of color, and beautiful. The road to the right was dark, colorless and dreadful.  Each of us stood, one by one, in a straight, horizontal line, all of us with our eyes glued to the sight of the two, very different roads. “Five minutes to make your ultimate decisions and then you're off!  Five Minutes!” ordered trainer Clark. My mind frantically ran around in circles trying to scoop out any good decision making skills I had learned in training. “Always remember, taking the hard road always pays of in the end!” I hear the sound of my parents’ voices in my mind. Suddenly, it hit me, and in that moment I knew, even though I had not yet taken a step on either of the roads, that I had made the right decision. My parents had been secretly telling me what the right road was my entire life! “Bang!” the starter gun fired and decisions had been made. As I started down the dark road I paused, listened. I did not hear footsteps behind me. I was alone. Everyone else had chosen the easy way out. I had chosen the hard road.