Oh, Baby!
By: Whitney Ortiz Like every night before the first day of school, I barely slept. I was experiencing too much excitement from wearing my brand-new ripped jeans and high-top sneakers, wondering what my teachers would be like, and which of my friends would be in my classes. I was hitting my second milestone in my education-8th grade, the last year of middle school. Finally, the top dog and thirteen, a real teenager! As always, the excitement soon faded, and I realized school was still the same; we just got a little older (even though most of the boys didn’t act like it). I never really struggled academically, but I can’t say I enjoyed school either, other than the fact that I got to hang out with my friends all day. Ms. Simon was my English teacher that year. She was an older lady with blonde wavy hair and glasses and always talked with her hands. She picked books for us to read as a class that always kept our attention and made us want to read, but most importantly at the time, she was very laxed and let us choose our seats which was everything to us. I chose the second row, four chairs back right next to my friend Gabby. We never disrupted the class by talking when we weren’t supposed to. We’d simply just pass each other notes we had written in our friendship journal that we rotated every period for the next person to read and respond to. We’d talk about the teacher that made us mad, or the boys we had crushes on, and the other girls we couldn’t stand. But the deeper we got into the school year the less I saw of Gabby. There were around twenty something other kids in that class, but I still felt lonely on days she didn’t come. It had been three days and I still hadn’t seen or heard from her. I walked in my reading class and there she was with her long black hair pulled in a pony tail. I was so happy to see her but told her how mad I was that she seemed to never be at school anymore. She agreed and told me she needed to tell me a secret. That’s the day I found out my friend was pregnant at fourteen. I felt panicked as if it was me. I had so many questions. Who, what, when, where, why? I hadn’t even had my first boyfriend yet, so I couldn’t even process what I just learned, or what to say, or how to feel. Gabby continued to show up to school a few days a week and her belly grew a little more each time. I saw less and less of her and our friendship eventually turned to being acquaintances. Every school year the number of pregnant waddling girls grew, and it seemed less weird and no such a big deal to see them around. Even my senior year, girls were pregnant, some were 18 by then, legally adults by law but still a teen and clueless to the “adult world.” They would grow big bellies then disappear for a little bit then return and no one would even bat an eye. I’ve since learned that studies show that the teen pregnancy rate has been declining. Although studies show a decrease in teen pregnancy, there’s still so many girls walking the halls while simultaneously growing their babies. My mom works at our local high school and a few times a year I go through my daughters’ things and donate it all to the school to help because I know the big task that lies ahead of them. |
Works Cited
“Teen Pregnancy.” City Trends Databank, 2018, https://www.childtrends.org/indicators/teen-pregnancy
“Teen Pregnancy.” City Trends Databank, 2018, https://www.childtrends.org/indicators/teen-pregnancy