36 Weeks

I was halfway through my junior year of college when I found out I was pregnant. Part of me was worried about what this would mean for the rest of my time in college, and part of me was almost hopeless about finishing at all, but all of me was excited for this baby. I was worried because our society right now doesn’t have many resources for girls who get pregnant in college, and instead, we are told we can’t do it.

We can’t finish college. We can’t chase after that difficult degree. We can’t be a student and a mother.

This couldn’t be more wrong.

Pregnancy in college is hard, and no one can sugarcoat that, but it’s far from impossible. Instead of listening to the skeptical and scared voices asking me what I’d do now that I “can’t” finish college, I told them that they were wrong. I was determined to show the world that it could be done. I started taking my classes more seriously and when planning schedules for the next few semesters, I overplanned. Walking into my advisor’s office last spring to speak to her about my plans, I laid out all of my pieces of notebook paper with my goals, timelines, and ideas scribbled out, and we worked off of that. We set into motion a plan for me to finish on time with everything I wanted (and more) out of my time left in college.

I am about to embark on my senior year of college and motherhood at the same time, but I am unafraid.

Out of all the things I could be scared of, the only thing I’m intimidated by is if I’ll be able to give our son everything that I can when he’s born. The truthful answer is probably not, but I know that I will love him enough and that is everything.

I want to show my son that his timing and existence was never an inconvenience or a mistake. Instead, he will grow up knowing that his parents worked hard while we were still growing ourselves, because we believed in the love of our little family and how far that could take us in this life.

I’m not done with college yet, but I’m not quitting. If I can show my son that he can do anything because his parents didn’t back down to society’s fears for us, then that would be a success in itself.

And in the meantime, can someone grab that thing I dropped on the floor? Thanks!