I’m 43. I work the morning shift at a little grocery store on Main, and honestly? Most days it feels like I’m just trying to stay upright while the world spins a little too fast. Some mornings I stand by the loading dock, watching the sun pull itself over the rooftops, and tell myself that sometimes, showing up is all you can do — and that has to be enough.It’s not glamorous work and it’s definitely not the kind of job anyone writes down in a yearbook under “future dream,” but after everything we’ve survived as a family, I’ve learned to love one word more than any other: stable.
Stable means the fridge is full.
Stable means the lights stay on.
Stable means my daughter has a real shot at a future.
I used to want more — big goals, big plans. Now I just want enough. Enough time, enough warmth, enough peace.Dan, my husband, works full-time doing maintenance at the community center. Leaky pipes, busted toilets, flickering lights, broken windows — if it’s cracked or clogged, he’s the one they call. He comes home with stained sleeves, sore shoulders, and a quiet kind of strength in his eyes. He never complains. Not once. We both know the stakes. We both know what it looks like when there isn’t enough.
Our daughter Maddie just turned 16. She’s bright. The kind of bright that makes you both proud and a little terrified. Straight A’s, obsessed with biology, always talking about cells and genomes and research labs like they’re just around the corner instead of miles — and thousands of dollars — away.She’s already made a list of universities. Most of them are nowhere near our tiny town and nowhere near our budget.
“Mom, I just need one good scholarship,” she’ll say, eyes lit up, staring out her bedroom window like the stars are giving her private advice.
And maybe she will get one. But scholarships are like catching dandelion fluff in your hands — possible, but slippery. We don’t say the scary part out loud. We just work. We save. We hope. I’ve started skipping lunch more than I admit, telling myself I’m “not that hungry” as I tuck away five extra dollars in her mental college jar.
