Life is definately NOT over.

[color=#6699ff][size=1]I have always been a very good student- 3.9 GPA and always on honor roll. I’m the kind of person who gets a job a week after their 16th birthday and pays for all the things many teens are given – ipods, cars, computers, etc. – with my own money. I’m definately NOT the kind of teenager you’d see walking through the halls with a huge belly a few months from giving birth. But now stop.

Really, what kind of person is that?

People are so quick to judge and say a pregnant teen is an irresponsible teen, a neglected teen, and problem teen. That’s so untrue! Making the decision to keep a child and care for it at such a young age is anything but irresponsible. And to say a teenage mother must have been raised wrong- hello? Since when do well raised teens never have sex?

I am sixteen years old. Four months ago, I found out I was pregnant. Unlike a lot of others, I didn’t break down. It was kind of weird, now that I think about it. I’m not sure why, but I knew things would be okay. At the time, my boyfriend and I hadn’t been together even two months. When I told him, he broke down and cried, but after a bit of tears, he asked what I wanted. I told him I wanted an abortion. He didn’t want that, he said, but it did seem like the best thing to do. He also said he wanted to go to the doctor with me and, if I would let him, be there with me to tell my mom. A few nights later, I went online and looked up what was inside me. It looked like nothing more than a lima bean, but even that was something. My boyfriend and I were talking on the phone at the time, and I told him what it looked like. He told me he already knew. I asked how and he responded by telling me he’d already looked it up, and he’d also looked up all the procedures for abortion, and he couldn’t see the point in killing something like that. I kept looking up stuff online, and I guess that’s what made me realize I wanted my lima bean [we call it that now]. He told me if I wanted to keep it, it’d be okay, and that giving him a baby wouldn’t ruin his life because a baby is blessing even if it’s an accident. I honestly couldn’t believe that he’d say that. It made me feel good, like things would be okay. I scheduled a doctor’s appointment, and I’ve been to several since then, my boyfriend attending every single one. He is now excited and constantly asks to go to baby sales with me, and he’s always rubbing my belly saying, "That’s my lima bean!" On August 18th, we’ll finally get to know what our little lima bean will be! Our entire families and all our friends know now, and everyone is very supportive except my father, whom I recently moved away from to move in with my mom. When my dad found out, he told me I was ruining my life and to abort it. And now that I refuse to listen to it anymore, he constantly calls my mom to tell her what I won’t hear of. I am not ruining my life. And neither is my boyfriend. I am continuing school, and receiving all of my credits while maintaining my GPA, and he is on schedule to graduate early.

I want young moms out there to know that it’s not the end of the world, and it’s not impossible. Being pregnant is not the most painful nor the worst thing that could happen to you. If you choose to keep your baby, things will work out if you truly want them too. It just takes determination, support, and hard work. Don’t let people’s negativity touch you. You will hear true stories of people’s lives being ruined, and you will see statistics of pregnant drop outs, but that’s not you. You also hear of people "ruining" their lives in other ways, and high statistics of just general drop outs who were not pregnant. Don’t let the mistakes and sorrows of others make up your mind.

God bless all of you,
Stacey[/size][/color]