The six stages of life her parents engrained in her were:
Graduate high school
Go to college
Get a good job
Get a boyfriend
Get married
Then have kids
then she could be successful and fulfilled
In these achievements she could find happiness
But
To her
a life worth living
could be discovered
In something
Much smaller then that
In the warm sip of coffee while listening to the streaming flow of traffic outside her office window
The first face smooshing greeting of her lover after arriving home from a long day of work
The meal shared over her childhood dinning room table eating only a steak her mom could make
The careless laughter of her best friend as they talk about their weeks as they wandered in the mall pacing from store to store
The jolt of her puppy jumping up on the couch to snuggle her feet
The excitement of turning to the first page of the second book written by her new favorite author after waiting months for its arrival
Those
small
moments
Those were her memories
Those were her life