Teen Pregnancy, Can They Succeed In Graduating High School?

My answer to this question is "Yes!" I will have to say that I was also a teen mother to a beautiful daughter in 1985. Living in a Christian home and being brought up in a strict environment made me as a teen want to get out and do things that I knew was wrong. I did not feel back then that I could talk to my parents about protecting myself from becoming pregnant and back then I was fearful of asking anyone to help me find protection.

If you are a teen now in 2000 it is so different. They have so many resources for teens to get protection, they have the right to even refuse protection too, even if a parent knows that their teen is active and tells the doctor they want their teen on protection, if they refuse you have no control and cannot get them to protect your kids. It is the law, teens have the right to refuse and we as parents have no control in protecting our kids from teen pregnancy. I am actual proof because it happened to me as a parent. I took my daughter in and she refused, why because she was fearful of gaining weight as many others told her would happen on birth control.

I wanted to protect her because as a teen I became pregnant and went through so much criticism, struggles, and hardships living in 10 different homes as a single teen mom. I went from living at home to hopping around to wherever I could stay and live. While I was pregnant I continued my Senior year, would wake up sick and still went to school.What motivated me and my daughter to keep going till we graduated?

Before I go any further let me tell you, I asked my daughters permission to tell her inspiring story of what motivated her and why she kept going even after becoming pregnant at the age of 15.

First of all I would like to show you my proof from a conversation I had with her on face book requesting her permission and then asking her what motivated her to continue High School.

In it you will see how she talks of how her biggest motivator was her son. She wanted to get a better education to lead into a better job for the future of her son. I have seen her grow as a parent to her son and the love she has for him is so unbelievable, she will move mountains for the little guy, he is her world.

1. Her son is biggest motivator
2. To make her family proud
3. Prove to those people that doubted her that she would graduate high school.
4. Hearing the negative from people concerning her she turned it around into a positive.

She felt she wanted to make me and her father proud because she felt she let us down by getting pregnant.

In saying this to me all the emotions she told me started welling up inside me, I wanted to let her know that she never let me down, I was hurt because I knew from experience how hard it would be as a teen mom and was hoping she too would never have to go through what I did. She sure is a strong fighter and proved to all of us how you can succeed and graduate and accomplish any goals you set your mind to.

There are more resources out there now for teen parents to succeed.

My daughter was a cheerleader in her freshman year in high school and after becoming pregnant she decided to enroll into a school here in our hometown that is for teen moms.

• They offered a comfortable environment with teens going thru the same experience.
• Counseling to talk to them
• When their child was born they could have the freedom to bring baby for several months into their classes to be able to bond with their babies.
• A nursery for them to take their baby or child when they got older and give them free care and the freedom to leave class to feed them and see them between classes.
• Bus service to and from school with child safety seats.
• Guidance and help with resources to provide and nurture their child and themselves.

When it was her Senior year I remember her telling me that she was not sure if she would have enough credits to graduate this year. I told her to be positive and that if she really wanted to graduate she would do whatever it took. Just when I thought she probably would have to go another year she turned it around and found the resources through her school and teachers telling her how she could earn extra credit and achieve in her goal of graduating.

Her drive was so strong, in her years at the Teen Parent Early College Program she had so many obstacles.

I allowed her to get married to the father of her son and that turned out to be a toxic relationship. She was always emotional over a lot that was going on in her life but still managed to get up even when she was sick and drag herself to school.

After years of attending her school the time came when they told her this year during her Senior year that out of all the teen moms in the school they chose her to represent the school, they felt she had came so far and had been through so much and had succeeded in so many things in school. Let me tell you she told me and I was the proudest mom. And in the photos you will see her with her black robe and cap with long black hair along with other Seniors from different schools that were also chosen to represent the school they attended.

Just when she made me proud she gave me more news, she had to write three papers to get a grant they chose her to get, she received a scholarship grant and was told she would be also going to Washington to read her stories and could possibly win another scholarship to help in her college expenses for the future.

She did what she set out to do and made us very proud, proved the doubters she would graduate, and turned her situation into a positive.

She wants to let all teen moms know they can do it too, you have to want to succeed it is all up to them, there are resources out there for them to achieve their goals and to graduate high school. Keep going and never think you cannot graduate, always keep your head held up high, think positive and you will achieve anything you set your mind to in life.