Is it REALLY so wrong? (Teenage Pregnancy)

Member Name: jesika_jay

Product:	Teenage Pregnancy
Date:	17/07/02 (223 review reads)
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This is quite a sensitive subject for me; I was one of those "teenage mums", one of those "parasites to society" and still finding it hard to believe that there is still a stigma attached to becoming pregnant under the age of 25.

I had just turned eighteen when I found out I was pregnant. I had been careful with contraceptives, if only to protect myself from getting an STD, but I still did not want to become pregnant. It was quite a shock to me as I was still at school, just about to take my a levels and then jet off travelling for a year before going off to uni.

But when the test came out positive, I thought about what was more important- a trip around the world and some qualification written on a piece of paper or a tiny little human being who will be completely dependant on me. How could I even make a comparison? So, being anti-abortion, I stuck to my views and decided to keep the baby.

To my astonishment, all I got for my decision, which seemed to me the only option as the other option was unthinkable, was negative and hurtful comments: "you silly girl, youve wrecked your life" or "you'll be stuck on the doll for the rest of your life" and "you could have been so successful" even, "you're life is over"

My life is over?? They made it seem like I had just told them I had a fatal illlness that could not be cured when all I had done was do the one thing that humans were put on the earth to do, the most natural thing a human could do- reproduce!

That was how I saw it- it was pure logic to me. Getting a good education, going to uni, building a good career- they are all thing s which I was expected to do, and they are good things to do, but they are man made, they are society-made. What society says, people go along with without htinking about what is logical.

I'll tell you what else is logical: why do kids reach the age of puberty at 12/
13? The answer is simple- because this is the age at which human beings are designed- by nature- to start having sex and reproducing, so what the hell is wrong with it? ABsolutely nothing! This may seem absurd to a lot of people, that's because the society we live in today makes us believe that it is wrong to have sex/ get pregnant as a teenager. Society and the goverment drums this into our heads through education, through the media, through laws so that we end up with wharped views about what is right and wrong.

Ok, so there will be difficulties, being a young mum- you might be missing out on getting a good career.
So what? Not everybody wants a "good career". Not everybody is so concerned about making themselves rich. Did it ever occur to the goverment that money might not make everyone happy, that maybe there is more to life than money?
That's jsut the point- society today is so driven and completely taken over by power; people are so concerned about making money and being "a success" that htey forget about life's real values, such as family and friends. If you don't make it as rich and wealthy with a big house and a levels and a university degree, you are labelled as a reject of society. If you get pregnant at a young age, that's what you are. Well, if doing what nature intended me to do means being a reject of this precious country's society, then so be it!

What is to say that you can't be "a success" if you are a teenage mum anyway? I had to put up with all these melodramatic old prunes (not just older people, but people of my own age as well) saying that my life was over, and oh, i would never be able to do my degree and get a good job, and oh, it is such a shame! Well, I got my target grades in my four a levels, which all the teachers were convinced i would fail due to morning sickness. And after taking a year off, I went to uni. Now I have my precious degree like they a
ll wanted, and I was another teenage pregnancy to add to the list of statistics.

Luckily, I had the support of my parents. My dad shares the same views as me; he doesn't believe in most of what the goverment initiate and how they mould society into whatever they want, however they want. He, like myself believes that one minisscule group of people cannot have the right to make decisions about what is right and wrong when the answers to this lie in the eyes of nature itself. Who are we to question it? Who are we to say that girls should not get pregnant until they are at least 25 and have a university degree behind them? Degrees and careers have only been around for a mere 100 years, whereas nature and its developements have been around for billions! And people starting to think that this new comer to life that is education and careers are more important than nature itself is ludicrous!

On a slightly different note, of course there are reasons why girls who get pregnant might want to feel that they should get an abortion- they will be treated like crap and looked down upon for the rest of theor lives, they will be labelled a disgrace, they will be labelled "slappers" and "slags" and other nasty things, they will be branded as stupid. They have it drummed into their heads that the only thing you should be doing when you are young is going out and geting drunk every night to have a laugh. Where did that idea come from?- "you should be going out and getting drunk at your age, not having a baby". That's another comment I suffered the boredom of hearing every 2 minutes. These people would rather I got slaughtered every night, shagged about with different lads from diffenrent clubs, ended up face down in a pile of my own puke in a gutter, and poisoned my own body than do what the female body is actually designed to do- have a baby! It was all senseless. Yes, it maybe hard to enjoy yourself with a baby tying you d
own and not being able to get drunk if you are a victim of society. It is very hard to be happy at all if you don't do every thing you are "supposed" to do. That's if you are a victim of society.

But i choose not to be a victim of society; if something makes me happy, I'll do it, no matter whether I am "right" or "wrong" in the eyes of society, I really couldn't give a s**t!

But back to the point- Abortion??? Girls are made to feel as though the only option if they are pregnant is to have an abortion before their life is ruined. Why should anyone who has a healthy body and a healthy pregnancy and was responsible and mature enough to have sex be allowed to get their foetus killed? Because they are not ready? Not Ready in a way that they have not been travelling around the world? NOt ready in a way that they still want to go out and get drunk? Or just not ready to committ to a baby they don't feel like having. Or not financially capable of having a baby? I am not saying that these are invalid reasons- in the eyes of society; they are all made up by our modern society for us lemons to go along with.

It still infuriates me when I hear teenage pregnancy being talked about in a negative way; let people live out their own lives the way they choose to do so, and lets not get so uptight if a person does one little thing that isn't classed as a social norm. Everybody is different and equal. Nobody is "better" than someone else just because they are richer or have 5 a levels. Everyone has a right to live their lives the way they want without others constantly putting them down and making rash judgements and silly generalisations about huge groups of people; "ALL teenage mums are on the doll" I am not "on the doll" for the reason that i would rather live in poverty than take money off this government, and i dont pay taxes either as i am still classed as a student. I
just want to earn enough money to be comfortable, by setting up my own business and being self employed, but ive had variuos job offers from companies already.

So you can't have both- be a young single mum AND go to uni and do the whole career thing? Well i did do both and proved them wrong. And i still get comments like, "i bet you regret getting pregnant at such a young age when you ahould be out enjoying yourself?" But i am not bothered by them anymore- whats the point in getting worked up about people who only think along with the mind of society? I have my own mind. And i am not in debt like most students either because i didn't waste all my loan on alcohol and cigarettes- i put it in the bank for emergencies and lived off the savings i made when i was pregnant. And i enjoy life! I may sound boring to you, but i just don't find pleasure in the things which this society deems to be desireable; i am content on the inside rather than the outside.

I am glad i got pregnant at 18- it really opened my eyes to the foolishness of this modern day world we live in where the true values of life are being replaced by materialistic surface values without us really even realising.

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