Vintage Tales discussion

I know this is a very typical poem for people to quote and discuss. However, it was my favourite poem by Frost when studying him, and I think that's because it touched quite close to home. I've had to make some difficult decisions over the last year, especially concerning people's views of me, and this poem kind of sums it all up. Do you take the path that is less travelled by, where society could potentially go against you, or do you stick to the traditional ways of life?

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.

That's the poem we had to read and memorize and discuss when I was in the eighth grade in middle school. It's a pretty good poem by Frost.

I like it, but as I said, it does hit rather close to home. It is massively overused though, and many people throw it around not actually understanding what Frost actually means.

There's a level of doubt over whether he did pick the one 'less travelled by'. The repetition of 'I' in the final stanza could suggest that Frost actually lied, and just said he took the one 'less travelled by' to make himself stand out.

There's also some debate over how 'different the paths are', and how that relates to the final stanza. The 'worn them really about the same' begs us to question if the 'difference' highlighted in the last stanza was actually a difference at all. Or if society moulded to it to make there be no difference.