The Road Less Traveled By

There I stood, and had to make a choice. A choice that might, or might not, influence my career life (if any, that is) at least for the next few years. Will I continue my army service once more, or finally move to a new life as a "free" civilian?

If there's one thing people all around the world love to hate, it's their job. And specially in israel, when it comes to being a soldier.
"Outside", friends told me, "you'll get more money! You won't have to wear those icky uniforms, and if you're lucky enough- you might even get your own company-car".

But.. is that it? Is that what it's all about? Can person achieve happiness only thanks to the amount of cash he has, the gadgets he owns? If you ask me, the answer would be that money and technology can help you improve your life style, but true satisfaction comes from a totally different place.
And if that's not enough, I'm not an officer either - a fact which leads directly to the well-known conclusion, that at least in this lifetime, I won't get a career in the army. So it's obvious, that eventually (and that wouldn't be too far away from today), I should, and I would, leave the army.

So why should I stay at the army, at least a little bit, despite all of the above?
First, and maybe the most important reason of all, I love my job. I love the feeling of working for something that is beyond money or stocks. I've never been too much into patriotism, but I guess I still got some undisputed values at the back of my mind. Some people might claim that it doesn't worth the effort, but anyone can look from the side and criticize - but it only counts if you do something to make things better.
You might say that I did what I could, and that's it (after all, I am a volunteer to the army service). Plus, it's all nice and touchy to think you can make things better, but you do have to earn your own bread, somehow. Here, comes the profession-related reason: I've been promised to move to a new job, in which I will gain more expirience, soon become some kind of a team-leader's assistant, and get to command in another course.

Still, besides the one last argument, some people might say I could get quite the same job with a better salary if i'd only quit the army. Maybe they are right, maybe they aren't.
Maybe it's because I've had more than one opportunity to leave the army in the past, that the idea doesn't look to me as great as it may seem to someone else. But one thing I can surely say: That I know myself well enough, to tell that I could wait one or two more years for these jobs, outside the army - but for letting go an opportunity to do a second job and commanding a second course at the army - for such an act, i would have never forgive myself.


While most of the people would leave the army, here I am - just like in Robert Frost's poem - taking the road less traveled by. Have I made the right decision? Did i think about it well enough before deciding? Only time will tell..

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, 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

- The Road Not Taken / Robert Frost