The Teen Pregnancy Epidemic

I remember when I found out I was pregnant with my first child. I was seventeen years old….

As I started to write this post, I searched for a picture to go along with the blog entry and briefly my thoughts went to a picture of me at my senior picnic during my last year of high school. The picture captures myself along with high school classmates smiling with glee for the camera. The senior picnic was part of our week-long celebration preceding our big graduation day. I remember the photo so vividly because even though I wore a smile on my face that day, many of my classmates didn’t know the inner turmoil that raged inside of me. Many of them were planning to go away to college or to travel and have as much fun as possible now that they were finished with high school. I on the other hand was trying to make myself believe that the little one I was carrying in my womb would not keep me from achieving all the things I had planned pre-pregnancy. Before I could settle on posting the picture from senior picnic with my tiny baby bump, my mind then went to my prom picture. I remember getting many compliments about my prom picture and most of those compliments came from people who didn’t know that at senior prom I was two months pregnant. I remember eating strawberries that night at prom…thats it..strawberries. I had been so sick proceeding the positive result of the pregnancy test that I couldn’t hold much on my stomach. I remember smiling and having a good time with friends, knowing that what I was about to face was much more than I could handle and honestly I wished my senior year could go on forever; this way I could skip the pregnancy part and enjoy another year of being a kid.