Pregnant and Afraid
Raising a child isn’t an easy thing to do. Raising a child while still in your teens is even harder.
“Your life is over”
“Say Good bye to your dreams”
“Life is going to get so much harder”
These are some of the negative remarks I heard not only from accountancies but even family members. Being a pregnant teen changed my life. I was a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School full of dreams and aspirations. I knew I wanted to help my community, I knew that I was capable of being more than just a pregnant teen. But the look of pity and the shame I felt made me withdrawal from all senior activities. It made me take periods off school and even withdrawal college applications. As far as my friends went, when I got pregnant, they all ran away. It was hard, emotionally because I had to go through all of these physical and emotional changes while my friends were having fun. I felt like an outcast, which was not me at all. I was used to being one of them. I began to accept those negative stereotypes surrounding teen pregnancy and belief that my life was over.
However, my life took a 180 degree turn on April 05, 2006, I became more than just a daughter, sister and girlfriend. No longer was just a girl with big dreams that were broken with the negativity around me. I became a mom! I truly believe it to be the most important role I will ever have. Gabriel brought with him so much joy and happiness once again to my life. His arrival was magical it made my heart grow twice as big and he taught me to be a better me. That day I promise Gabriel that I would protect him and provide for him to the best of my ability. I also promise myself that I was going to attend college and obtain my Bachelors. I never want to be associated with the negative statics surrounding teen parenthood. And now I am proud to say that June 11, 2016, I will be graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Studies!
Raising a child, starting your career, finding yourself and getting an education are some of the hardest things most people will ever achieve in their lifetime. Can you image going through all of these at the same time?
Being a mom and attending college is so hard! It is not necessarily due to the amount of work or the intensity of it, but rather because I have to spend so much time away from my family. I have sacrifice some soccer practices, play dates, movies dates all to study, write a paper, etc. I have spent long nights just to catch up on readings and long days of studying along with working. I have sacrifice a lot along on this path and I wasn’t going to let those sacrifices go in vain. There were days were I had to question whether this path was worth all that. I am very fortunate to have a wonderful husband that has help me every step of the way. But there were definitely days were all I wanted to do was enjoy a soccer games and then ice cream but I couldn’t because I had a to study for a test. Those were the tough days, were I questioned if I was doing right thing. The answer was always so simply, one look at my baby’s eyes and I knew that it was all for him. I was going to finish this because he deserved it because I deserved it. Because I knew that a degree could open doors that I couldn’t open without.
This journey has been tough, but with this journey I gave myself and most importantly I gave my son a life lesson, is that, that no matter what odds are against you with persevering, dedication and a lot of hard work everything is possible.
