Stability

Last year I taught a few psychology classes at a high school close to where I work. During one of the lessons I was teaching on personality development, I asked my students to think about one word that described what they wanted most out of life at this stage in the game. Most of the responses included success, happiness, love, acceptance, money, etc. They then turned the question back to me, and asked for my response. I said, "Stability."

Many of them looked surprised and one girl raised her hand, "But you seem to have it all together Miss Morelli, how could you be lacking in stability?" I smiled and said, "What you see on the outside isn't always what lies beneath. Yes, I have a career, a home, family, friends- the 'whole package' as some would say. But I still lie awake at night, plagued by choices I have to make. I question what my next move will be, and where it will take me to next. I think about the roads I have already chosen, and wonder if they were the right ones. Nothing in life is permanent, and as you grow, evolve, meet new people, and live in different places, your needs will change as well. So what you want out of life at 17 or 18 is going to change drastically after college when you hit the real world. It will change again in your mid-late 20s, and even further into your 30s. Your needs will constantly evolve... just as YOU will constantly evolve."

Almost a year has passed since I taught that lesson. And if they were to ask me that same question today, my response would still be "Stability." I don't know when it will come, or how I will get to that place. But I think about that class often... and how I rediscovered so much of myself in teaching those girls how and why we think, feel, and act the way we do.

Stability- defined as continuance without change; permanence. Maybe I'm just not ready to be stable... maybe my journey is meant to be a little bumpy, a little rocky, and full of twists and turns.