全國英語演講比賽冠軍吳柏德參賽講稿

　　吳柏德，臺灣臺南人，目前就讀天主教輔仁大學，雙主修英文語言學系及臨床心理學系。自幼喜愛語言。以下是小編整理了，供你參考。

　　I was seventeen, almost a senior in high school. I was riding my bike to school. I had taken a special route to pick up a gift, but that day, "the road less traveled by" led to disaster. Crossing a road, a drunk driver ran a red light, slammed into me, and shattered my left knee.

　　It made all the difference.

　　I was forced to postpone college, plunged into painful therapy . . . but eventually, I also learned much about life and myself. I found the strength to withstand adversity, learned compassion, and above all, I learned that the road not taken is not just about regrets or choices but also about the perpetual now and the always-coming future.

　　When I first studied Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” in middle school, I was unable to grasp its ambiguity. I always thought that Frost’s persona chooses “a road less traveled by” and lives life being subversive and irreverent. I was wrong. In the poem, both of the two roads that “diverged in a yellow wood” are actually “about the same.” But there has to be a choice, and sometimes, they it can be involuntary as I learned the hard way. This makes me extremely thankful and resolute when I can make conscious choices and plan for the future, and so I know now that Frost's poem is also about "the road not [yet] taken."

　　For everyone, this means something slightly different. For me, it means constant vigilance, learning, and love. Our journey is hard, complex, and it often presents unexpected twists, but reflecting on the roads not taken and not yet taken each day gives us a little more strength and confidence. Life cannot and will not me perfect, and the truth is it will end. But as Willa Cather would say, “The end is nothing, the road is all.” The road not taken in the past, and the road not yet taken that lies ahead.

　　But about the present? It joints the past and the future. What then, is “the road not taken” in the perpetual now? Personally, I find an answer in these lines from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses”:

　　Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and though

　　We are not now that strength which in old days

　　Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are

　　One equal temper of heroic hearts,

　　Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

　　To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

　　Thank you.