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