Decide, Don’t Slide

The simple reminder for people in love that changed my relationships forever

Katie E. Lawrence
3 min readOct 4, 2024
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

I first heard the term “decide, don’t slide” during the Fall of my junior year of college. I’d just switched my major to Human Development & Family Science so I could take HDFS 3930, a service learning class that had piqued my interest.

The class’s entire purpose was to teach relationship curriculum in high schools. When I first got the email, I couldn’t believe the opportunity. Me? Teaching teenagers about love? How could I stay away?

I attended training during the first week of classes and was instantly blown away by all the good information I was learning. It was overwhelming but necessary. Over time, as I practiced teaching it during our service-learning course and then was sent out into the high schools under scrutinous supervision, I started to get the hang of it.

“What comes easy won’t last long, and what lasts long won’t come easy.” — ​ Francis Kong​

I would include some of my personal examples every once in a while with the curriculum, sharing research-based facts with some of my own funny and relatable stories mixed in. Kids listened, and I learned more from my own experiences under the new lens of what I’d been…

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Katie E. Lawrence

Soon to be B.S. in Human Development & Family Science. I write about life, love, stories, psychology, family, technology, and how to do life better together.