Teen Pregnancy

Teen Pregnancy is a very serious issue in America. There are many statistics and facts about teen pregnancy and how it is such a big problem in America. So, in my paper I want to talk about teen pregnancies and ways to prevent it. I want to explain that teen pregnancy is not the end of the world and that pregnant teens have a future. I want to also talk about my experience and how having a child at a young age changed my life in many different ways.

At the age of eighteen I found out I was going to have a baby. I was a junior in high school. I knew I had to make many changes and also that a lot of changes were

were going to be made on their own. Instantly relationships with my family and friends changed. Some for the good and a lot for the bad. As soon as I found this news out I was determined to do something with my life. Right away I had to mature myself and put all the kid games behind me.

When I first found out I was pregnant my family and friends were very shocked. After they dealt with being shocked that's when all the relationships began to change. The most dramatic changed was from my family. They were so disappointed in me. They wanted me to finish school first and get married. It was also frowned upon in my religion to have sex before marriage. Than there was the part of my family that was happy. They were happy I didn't do anything stupid like having an abortion. The person that mattered to me the most was my mom. She did not take the news lightly and I didn't blame her. Even though she was hurt and disappointed she made sure she gave me a lot of support. After that my mother and I became much closer. We always talked about the baby. She would rub my belly. She would also give me advice on my pregnancy.

Another personal change that had a big effect was with my boyfriend. When we found out we were becoming parents, we became closer. We knew we had to stay together for our child. We had already been together for four years. We didn't want our relationship to change. At first it was great but than it went completely downhill. After I had the baby things got so much worse. We couldn't deal with the stress of a crying baby and our problems well. It also didn't help that we lived with his family and all they did was mind our business. We would try to ignore the problems but that only made it worse. But, we had gotten through so many things before and just like before we got through that. We are now still working on a lot of things. Now the people I called my friends were not as supportive. They said they were going to be there but they soon drifted off. In the end I came out of it with only two friends. It wasn't that horrible to see those friends drift because it showed me what type of friends they were. I now had different priorities than most juniors my age. I had to now figure out what I wanted to do with my life.

All through high school I was never sure what I exactly wanted to do. But now that I knew I was bringing a child into this world I knew I had to go to college and make something of myself, for my child and also for myself. I was never all that serious with school but when I found out I was pregnant I switched schools right away. I enrolled in a school that had counselors for young mothers. It was called School Aged Mothers. It was like a regular high school it just was more hands on and with smaller classes. This school was better than my old high school. They knew we were all expecting or mothers. They understood that most things that we did before being mothers became harder now. We had this one class a day that was geared towards motherhood and talking about our lives. The rest of our classes were like regular high school classes. They did not treat us like little kids. Never did they judge us or make us feel down. They always kept us happy. Being in this school was great for me. They cared about me so much. The teachers helped us in any way they could. Seeing teachers and counselors that actually cared made me figure out what I wanted to do in college. I knew that I wanted to help young mothers just like I was helped. I feel like if I can help young pregnant girls than less will become statistics. I now was determined to become a counselor for young pregnant girls and young mothers. I knew that dream would come true.

Now that I figured out my career I had to mature myself. I now was going to be responsible for someone's life. At first people were saying that I would not graduate high school and I would get upset. I learned how to control my anger because now I had bigger problems than to argue with someone. I used to get upset at little things that people would say. I realized that I had to conduct myself as an adult. All the negative things that people said to me just made me work harder to achieve my goals. Now when I did things I thought about the consequences before doing them. I had to put all the kid games behind me and mature myself.

Through all of these changes I feel that I became a better person. Even though all the changes I went through were all not good, I