Miles To Go Before I Sleep

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

By Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.   

His house is in the village though;   

He will not see me stopping here   

To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

(Poem and image courtesy of poetryfoundation.org)

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   

To ask if there is some mistake.   

The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.

I would be the first to admit that most novels that are considered classics, and a good deal of poetry flies right over my head. This poem, written in 1922 (published in 1923) is one that I have long loved and has even more relevance to me today. 

If you know me at all, you know that my husband and I have been fighting (and winning) to get out of debt. Have you ever had a situation where it was one of the hardest things you have ever done, but it was also fun at the same time? That is what this past year has been for us. We are less than two months away from completing our goal of getting out of debt. 

On the long nights where I have worked 16 hours and all I want to do is fall into bed and sleep and then I turn around and push harder. I always repeat the final two lines of Frost's most iconic (to me) poem and that gives me the additional drive to push harder and further along this journey. 

When we started this journey, the idea of being able to save and put $3,000 a month toward debt seemed absolutely impossible. Working more than 40 hours a week seemed too hard. I was always worried about not having enough free time and there were some sacrifices I didn't want to make. I didn't want to get rid of my television and Netflix and Hulu. I didn't want to work on the weekends on top of working throughout the week. I didn't want to face the music, nor the astounding debt that was waiting for me just out of reach. I deferred my student loans for literally years after I graduated because I wasn't read to face reality. I wanted to enjoy the pretty snowy scenery around me as I walked through the snowy woods. I didn't want to put in the work to get to my destination. 

Thanks to my ever patient husband, and one silly little book that literally told me to stop spending excess money and start earning more. Literally, the key to this is HARDWORK. There is no magic. And once I was on board with what needed to be done, I contacted the company that had contracted my student loans and set up a repayment play. It was set up for a 30 year plan. We are going to have it paid in 13 months. We started budgeting and created the plan we needed to get ourselves out of the massive hole we dug ourselves into. 

We can see the light. We can see the end of the tunnel. We can finally see the coming dawn of a new chapter of our lives. And even though as of today we still have miles to go before we sleep, we have our destination, and we are not letting anything stop us. This journey has given us more confidence and a much clearer picture of our future. I'm also really looking forward to finally owning my college degree in full!

Dear Robert Frost, nearly 100 years later you are still inspiring and motiving people like me. You have my deepest gratitude for all of your hard work and your beautiful poetry.