My son was an unplanned pregnancy and I was in college when I had him. It was amazing how many people would just walk up to me when I was pregnant and call me a whore to my face. Once when I was in a sandwich shop, I had a woman angrily (and out of no where) ask me how many men I had to f**k to get pregnant. She screamed at me and told me I should give her money to pay her back for the tax dollars she pays that goes to my welfare check (I wasn’t on any assistance of any kind). I ran out crying and was sitting in my car when she left. Imagine my surprise when she walked over to a car with a “Pro-life” bumper sticker!

It was the scariest thing in the world to decide to keep my baby knowing I would have to raise him alone with no help from his father and hateful people like that woman were one of the reasons I considered abortion.

Luckily, I have also been surrounded by such a strong support group of family, friends, teachers, and coaches who have all been a part of raising my son to be the incredible young man he is today. It really does take a village and we all need to look at children as “our children”.