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The Issue Of Teen Pregnancy

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I suppose no one ever really expects things to happen to them until they actually happen. At least, that’s how I viewed things until I got pregnant with my first and only child at fifteen years old. It’s almost exactly the way they portray it in Hollywood movies and television shows and books. Although, unlike those books and shows, I never lost any friends from this experience. I will say that people are much more understanding nowadays. Still, no one is ever really ready to be a mom, especially at fifteen. Statistics say that seven out of ten girls that get pregnant while still in high school will drop out. Seventy percent of girls will drop out of school. In 2013, 273,105 babies were born to girls aged 15-19. That’s a terrifying number, but teen pregnancy rates are lower than ever before. Being part of the thirty percent that made it through high school, I will say one thing: the reason I made it through all four years (that’s right, there was never a moment of my high school career in which I was never a parent) was because I never saw myself doing anything else. The opportunity for school was always there. I was and still am one of the lucky few that have the opportunity for education, unlike many other countries where girls are condemned from schooling. I always knew I was going to college, and sure enough, I am the first person in my immediate family to attend a four-year university. My mother got pregnant at seventeen years old and had to drop out of high school.

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