The Road Not Taken

Tonight as I sit here thinking of this past week and the week ahead I am filled with mixed emotions. My long weekend started in my home state of Louisiana. As I boarded the plane in Nashville, I thought of the last time I made the trip home. My last trip home was to see my grandmother as her health was declining. My cousin and I spent the day with my grandmother and I flew home to Nashville. The next morning I received a phone call that she had passed away. Those sweet moments that we had brushing her hair and talking about the favorite memories of growing up with an AMAZING grandmother that could do everything will always be etched in my mind. That trip home was so hard and as I boarded the plane this time I was replaying those memories in my mind.

Yet, this time my trip home was to bring me full circle with the events that have forever changed my life. I was coming home to have a television interview with the OB/GYN that took care of me throughout my first pregnancy. Dr. Solar and I were going to kick off Epilepsy Awareness Month by sharing our story and the My Epilepsy Story organization with others in Louisiana. For the first time in a long time I loved being home. I forgot the little things that I love about Louisiana, the food, friends, family, and music! Our television interview was great and the meetings that followed were great as well. I received some exciting news while I was there…. Our story will be highlighted with a video in Washington, DC with one of the drug companies that make medication for people living with epilepsy. In addition, I will begin the process of becoming more involved with PCORI (Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute). This trip home made me miss Louisiana more than I have ever before. It was exciting to bring My Epilepsy Story back to my home state. I look forward to seeing the exciting things that will happen back home with the organization.

I had the opportunity to attend a music event while I was there and Chris LeBlanc was playing. This was my first time to meet him and hear him play. He was AMAZING! As I met Chris, you can’t help but fall in love with him immediately. Chris is full of happiness and the moment he begins to talk, you feel the joy that he has in his life. One of the lines Chris quoted was “You can’t always get what you want but if you try sometimes you might find you get what you need.” ~Mick Jagger
I have heard this before from a friend and while on my trip I needed to be reminded of this. So thank you Chris LeBlanc, for sharing your talents with the world!

The week ahead is full of new adventures and possibly a new journey for Samuel. Think of us this week…. Samuel has always been a world changer and the road that we travel on continues to keep us on that path. I do not pretend to like the road that we have always traveled on but I know that we will continue to take the path that is always the least traveled to make a difference in this world for others. Circumstances will not define us, they will make us stronger. So here’s to my world changer,

The Road Not Taken
By 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.

I look forward to seeing where this road will take us in the next year, 6 years, 26 years, and beyond…