A pregnancy should be a time of joy, excitement and anticipation but when it happens to a teenager who is not ready it has very little if any of these emotions. Teen pregnancy is like a disease for the nine months you have it. School friends tend to think your contagious so they stay away and you go to the doctor all the time. Not only are there changes in your social status, family relationships but your body as well.

It was the end of my junior year of high school when I became pregnant with my daughter. That first day of senior year with clothes that didn't fit really well and refusing to wear maternity was truly a day I won't forget. Everyone was rambling on about senior pictures, announcements and the approaching Homecoming dance but I was thinking about bottles, formula and how to afford diapers. Funny how your priorities change within a blink of the pregnancy test.

Oh, but I thought I was in love, I even had the ring to prove it. As teenagers grow up they realize they didn't know everything and probably never will. Becoming pregnant before my senior year was a sad disappointment to a many of people including my mom, teachers and younger brother and sister. They all thought I was going somewhere. The hard classes, long hours I had put in so I could graduate early would be a distant memory once I decided being the social outcast was too much to bear. I became a high school drop out three months before early graduation. If only someone would of jumped in to show me the light.

I was scared, alone and quickly realizing I knew nothing and wasn't prepared either. Luckily there was my family, they taught me how to be a mom, provided the extra things I couldn't afford and even kicked me out into the real world to get a job and face reality. Nothing is uglier than reality when it is filled with no high school diploma, a baby to take care of and no job skills.

Over time and with lots of support I went back to college, worked a full time job and met a man who would eventually become my husband. It was a struggle to say the least. Working during the day and taking a toddler to college with you at night is as close to strategic planning as I ever want to get. It was only through my family support and my husband's encouragement did I take those steps to better myself and improve my self esteem. Let me tell you, it was all little steps because the future looked so overwhelming through my eyes. The first step was to obtain my GED, after that was done it was on to a University.

Deciding to go back to college once you have kids, a husband a full time job is Big, really Big. Just thinking of adding something more to your schedule is like planning to have another baby, except this one you only have to raise until they are 4. Yet, with my kids and husband behind me I made it through all of those years and received a Bachelor degree in Business. It was the greatest day in the world so we went on vacation to celebrate.

13 years, a marriage, accepting Christ as my savior and a degree all in hand before I started to get past the tramatization of being a teen mom. The stigmatisms of being a teen mom had never really gone away and it wasn't until I completed my goals, or what I thought in my mind it took to be someone that it started to go away and the old me came back. Full of energy, excitement and self esteem.

Learn more about this author, Ben Sissom.
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