Saunders 1
Brenda “Corin” Saunders
English 2010-23
Professor Combs
3 February 2012
Short Writing 4
Determination
A week after my fifteenth birthday, I gave birth to my son Daniel. Daniel was born with bilateral club feet. I was faced with one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made. I had to choose between being a single teenage mom of a baby boy with a genetic birth defector placing him for adoption with parents who had more to offer than I could. My family told me I would not graduate high school if I decided to be a teenage mom. I weighed my options and created a list of pro’s and con’s for both decisions. I understood my family’s concern about me being a teenage mother because I was too young to work and Daniel’s father was not around to help raise him, but I would do everything I could to take care of my son and graduate high school.
I went to a teen parent high school where I could get a high school diploma instead of a GED. The high school was nine miles across town from where I lived. Some days I had to take two public transportation buses and walk a couple of blocks to get to school. When I rode the bus, I had Daniel in a baby carrier which allowed me to hold a pole with one hand and the car seat with the other hand while standing in the aisle on the bus.
Shortly after I started at my new high school, I had to schedule surgery for Daniel to correct his feet. The schoolhad a strict absentpolicy. If I missed five days of school, I would fail my classes. I coordinated the surgery at the end of a week, which gaveme extra time afterwards to take care of Daniel before going back to school.
The first couple of days after his surgery were the worst for me. Daniel had casts up to the top of his thighs. He woke up screaming from pain every couple of hours throughout the night. He disliked having the castson so he kicked his legs. He swung his legs up and slammed them down, but this caused him more pain.
Daniel had to wear the casts for six weeks after his surgery. I struggled keeping the casts clean because they were close to his diaper, and blood had soaked through the heel of the right cast. During his recovery, Daniel became addicted to the pain medication, which made it difficult to know if his crying was due to discomfort, or wanting more medication.
Going back to school after the surgery had some extra challenges. Daniel cried constantly in class so I held him to calm him down as I copied notes or worked on assignments. Other times I would put Daniel in his car seat on the floor and rock him with my foot to put him to sleep. Some of my teachers helped me in class by holding him while I worked on the assignments. When he turned six months old he was able to go into the school nurserywhich had children ages six months up to four years old. There was a table with seats built into it that held infants. Someone had put Daniel into one of the seats, but with his casts being bent at the knee it was nearly impossible to get him out of the seat. Afterwards, Daniel was put inside of a crib in the middle of the floor so older children would not hurt him.
The students at school were very understanding and caring, but when I went other places people were not as nice. After school I walked to the store to buy diapers and people stared at me with their judging eyes, and said comments like, “How did he break his legs?”, and “You look too young to be a mom.” I tried so hard to not show how their comments bothered me, but Icried when I got home. I did not want to be looked at as a mom who had broken her son’s legs, but at the same time I did not want to have to explain his birth defect.
Shortly after Daniel’s surgery I got a job in a hotel. I worked the swing shift as a front desk clerk part time which worked out perfectly for my schedule. I had school until 2 p.m.and worked from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. I worked on my homework in between checking in guests at the hotel and answering the phones. Some nights were busier than others at the hotel, so I did homework after I got off of work. I constantly had homework so I stayed up late most nights to finish it, woke up early the following days, and started the cycle all over again.
I spent my days off playing with Daniel. We went to parks, visited with friends who had kids, sat at home and played with blocks, or we read books. The most rewarding things for me as a parent in high school was seeing Daniel learn to crawl, walk, and talk. Daniel took his first step at school. He was holding onto a car that kids sit on to ride and I was called down to the nursery to see him walk. I moved the car away from him and he took his first steps towards me. As he started to fall after the third step, I caught him and hugged him tightly. I was fortunate to have him in school with me because it helped me enjoy more time with him and not miss out on him growing up.
As Daniel got older his expenses increased, so I started working full time. My senior year at high school I was juggling being a parent, going to school, working fifty-five hours a week, and doing homework. My grades had started to slip. I focused more on making money than doing my homework correctly. When I realized what happened, I hurried to correct my problem. Unfortunately my GPA for the last semester dropped below my 3.5 average.
Even though my grades were not as high as I wanted, I graduated high school early and with honors. Months after I graduated from the teenage parent high school, I walked with my graduating class from my original high school. As I walked across the stage wearing my honor chords and my head held high to get my diploma, I wanted to scream, “For those who thought I would not graduate, I did it!” It was so satisfying to accomplished my dream and with honors.
I could have chose to place Daniel for adoption, and had the opportunity to go to a regular high school instead of a teen mom high school, going to prom instead of a field trip to the zoo, and having a locker instead of a stroller. With my decision to be a young mom was challenging, but I have received more rewards by learning how to work through any situation that arises. My experience has helped me learn to keep setting goals for myself and work hard to achieve them. Determination has showed me that there are endless possibilities.
Project Analysis
I really enjoyed writing about this time in my life. I was able to reflect on how far I have come in life and recollect all the wonderful memories I had as a teenage mother. I had so much to write, but struggled with what information to put in the story. What may be interesting to me, might not be as interesting to others. Plus I had to keep in mind what I was writing about. My focus was what I went through to graduate high school. Positives and Negatives from the day I had my son to when I graduated high school.