My boyfriend and I started dating in April of 2014, when we were seventeen years old. We had only been together for about five months when I found out I was pregnant. The realization was obviously a big shock, and certain things and thoughts were common with teen pregnancy. One of these things and thoughts was abortion. But regardless of our age, this was something that wasn’tever an option, it didn’t even cross our minds. After the shock settled, we were really happy and excited about it, and hoped our family would be too.

I remember the day when I first saw the positive pregnancy test, I was completely in disbelief. As was my boyfriend. It wasn’t until we took about three more at home tests and got a test done at the doctor’s office for it to sink in. After a little bit, the feeling of disbelief was replaced with excitement and nerves.

The day we got the test done at the doctors, we happened to be at my moms’ house. I casually mentioned that my period was late, and she started freaking out and saying, “you go to the doctors right now and take a test!” and “you better not be pregnant!”. So, we go to see the doctor and of course the test comes back positive, and now I’m freaking out about how to tell my mom. After about an hour of wasting time, we finally head back and tell my mom. The whole drive back, I thought she was going to be mad, but she wasactually really excited! She couldn’t wait to be a grandma. So that clearly went better than expected.

My dad was a different story. I knew he wasn’t going to be happy about it, but I knew that I had some time to figure out the right way to tell him since he lives in Vancouver. Well, I thought I had time, but my mom beat me to the punch. By the time I called him to tell him, he already knew, and I later found out that he drank a bottle of alcohol a night since he found out. To say he was unhappy was an understatement. The idea of abortion was constantly brought up by him. For weeks.

When he came home to London to visit, that’s when it started coming up more. He came home around Christmas time and I was just shy of being three months pregnant at this point. Whenever I would see him, he would try to convinceme to get an abortion by saying, “it’s just a bunch of cells, it’s not a big deal”. I finally got so fed up that I replied to him with “did you ever think about getting an abortion when you found out that mom was pregnant with me??”When he said no, I think he finally realized that no matter what he said, I wasn’t going to get one. We were only a year younger than him and my mom were when they found out about me. After this realization set in with him, he became completely supportive.

So once everything was accepted by my family, we announced to everyone else that we were expecting. And it was one of the scariest things ever. I faced a lot of judgement from people who were telling me that I was dumb, or stupid, and many other things. I stopped going to school at the beginning of grade twelve, I wasn’t sure how this was going to affect my relationship, and I lost a lot of friends. It was a struggle, and sometimes I didn’t know how I was going to get through it all. But luckily my boyfriend, and some of my best friends, still to this day, were my absolute rocks. I don’t think I would’ve been able to handle everything the way I did, without them. Fast forward a little bit, we find out that we are having a baby girl and have an amazing baby shower thrown by my family, and another thrown by my awesome friends. A few months later, on my due date of July 11, and after twenty-five and a half hours of labour, Savannah is born weighing 7lb 10oz. My boyfriend and I, and both our families were so in love and over the moon. Seeing her made all my worries go away, it made me think that I could do anything. In that moment, I don’t think I have ever been so happy or so in love.

Now I know what you’re thinking. Getting pregnant as a teen means that I was a high school dropout. And for a little bit I was. After not going to school for about two months, I realized that even though I was at home, I still have to finish it. So, I decided to do it all online. It may have taken me a bit longer than other people my age, but I still did it. I am now currently in my second year of college, working, running two businesses, and have two children. The point is, being a teen mom didn’t “ruin” my life, it was actually the best thing that ever happened to me. Just because you have a child at a young age, doesn’t mean you’re always going to end up going a certain way in life. You can do whatever you put your mind to and having my child young gave me the extra push that I needed to get there.