Being a Young Mother in Today's Society

I got pregnant straight out of high school. In fact, I got pregnant about 2 weeks after I lost my virginity...how lucky was I, huh? From the beginning, I lost all my friends. I was called so many names, and of course, I had to show my belly around everywhere for 9 months, so that didn't help when it came to strangers' stares and comments either. Even my family treated me like crap. And all of this is still going on, now that my daughter is 1 1/2 years old. And how have I dealt with it? I just prove them wrong!

Today's society seems to think that young moms can't do anything right. They think they're sluts, that they're irresponsible, that they threw their lives away, and that they are still kids themselves. And maybe that might be true for some moms, but certainly not for the majority of us.

I took a year off of school after I got pregnant (I didn't have much choice after the doc said I had a high-risk pregnancy). I read up and educated myself on everything I could learn about pregnancy and labor and babies. I had a completely natural childbirth and breastfed until my daughter was 13 months old. Now I don't know about you, but that to me is not something that an immature, slutty, little kid would do. Since then, I have raised my baby all on my own, without any help from the father. I ended up starting college when my daughter was 5 months old. I finished my first year with straight A's.

I have proved everyone wrong! People actually come to me and tell me that they are impressed with how I have managed with my "situation" (like it's a disease or disability or something). They tell me that they didn't know I had it in me, and that they thought I would have my parents raise my daughter while I was out being lazy and wasting my time. I don't know where people get these ideas about how that's what young moms are like. At least I proved them wrong...so wrong in fact, that they feel they have to tell me to my face that I proved them wrong.