Remarkable insight into the adolescent mind, I had started to forget about those woes (but I've always been sort of outward-oriented and found multiple ways of influencing, to a degree).
What path do you actually mean that "was laid before us" ?
I tend to see these things from a neuroanthropological viewpoint, and that's of course a bit removed from the subjective inside-out view of the average human being, though it will in the end cover up.
Maybe too late ;)