Back then, what started as a blitz for gold persevered as a promise for a better life - something only the most American Americans dared pursue. It's amazing that after trailblazing immigrants had settled, a handful went off that beaten path and blazed further to the west. Treading in their footsteps, I can imagine how they must have felt.
Long before poet Robert Frost aggrandized the road less traveled by, people have been taking it. But what if that road turns out to be a detour? Or a dead end?
As July rolled in and the week-long, company-wide July 4th shutdown arrived, none of that was my concern. After a frustrating set of experiments showcased my gremlins at their best (those critters that sneak into lab and ruin things for you when all's going well), I was glad to hit the road to San Francisco with a few friends.
Arriving in SF, it was none other than my buddy Kerim and a group of (bum bum bummm) Genentech interns with whom I toasted the start of an incredible week. We went salsa dancing with my roommate-in-spirit Raquel and used the Straßenbahn-style BART to travel across town. SF public transport really came through; we took a ferry to Sausalito and bussed to Muir Woods, a redwood forest across the Golden Gate bridge left unlogged due to inaccessibility (note: forest also very inaccessible to buses).The redwoods are incredible, enough so that everyone in SF wanted to come out and see them! That's why Kerim and I opted for the path less traveled by. It was as steep as it was scenic, and there were far less people. Soon enough, we encountered yet another fork, this time even steeper and more secluded. We saw one band of hikers weaving confusedly through the brush, and elected to go yet another way. There we reached a small clearing and snacked on unsulphured apple crisps, pondering our next move.
I voted to return to the path less traveled (by this time we were traveling the path less traveled off the beaten path off the path less traveled). Kerim wanted to press on. I wavered.
"Are you scared, Mark? Afraid of the unknown?" he contested. I hesitated, glancing back, and pushed past him into the wilderness. Kerim thought and had a change of heart.
"It's okay. You don't have to prove anything."
My fist tightened and relaxed. An internal struggle ensued between rationality and that infectious spirit of courage rampant in the Golden State. We turned and leaned back as we descended to reality.
Sometimes it's wise to push romanticism aside and not get lost in the woods. That decision freed up the rest of my week to check out San Fran's finest. There's way too much to see and I'll definitely have to return someday. Maybe even for grad school?
It was tough to leave San Francisco and tomorrow brings another week of work. I don't know where the road ahead leads, but rather than hoping for tests to work out, I'm ready to focus on what I can control and stop blaming things on gremlins. Science is our machete - time to blaze a trail!
