Is Becoming Pregnant a High School Trend?
Imagine taking your lovely date to the senior prom. The time of your life forever captured by this one moment. Dancing, dining, laughing, and eventually, if you're lucky, banging her wildly in the backseat of your '79 Trans Am. Pass out the condoms in the men's room and rock the night away in the school parking lot. Ah, good times. But suddenly, she lets you in on her little secret of avoiding college, ha-ha! Why, have a child! Ah yes, that's it - the perfect cure to keep from succeeding in life, for college life is too hard and the parents are bastards, anyway. No sense in these condoms, I suppose...we're going to be parents! Horrible. Horrible. Apparently having children right out of high school is a trend that some girls are fucking up their lives with. Single parent, eighteen, no job, living with parents...GREAT! Nothing's more attractive.
I recall two weeks ago at Gatsby's, a local nightclub that features 2 for 1 screwdriver specials and scarcely covered girls. Many are underage and simply get in by their low-cut shirts. I sat near a gathering of girls on the verge of graduating. Class of 2007. They weren't there celebrating the completion of high school, but celebrating the recently announced news that their friend had conceived. I'm normally not social, more of a loner who simply observes. But once I've downed a few hard drinks, I go from being a librarian to becoming Keith Richards. Needless to say, I infringed on these poor, young girls in a ferocious way. They took it well, given that I rudely asked why she was knocked up and why they were celebrating her dismissal from late-night partying to raising and taking care of a screaming child?
"Cause it's cool," one of the young girls said, sitting closest to the bar where I was drinking.
"Jesus God!" I replied in shock. "Why the hell would someone want to have a kid right out of high school just because it was the cool thing to do?"
"She loves her boyfriend and wants to stay here with him."
"Versus?"
"Going to Vanderbilt."
"So, she had a child with this guy to keep from going to Vanderbilt."
"Yeah, basically."
Mother of screaming God, I thought. What ever happened to just saying no? I proceeded to ask more questions and drink harder from the news I just heard.
"So, are you happy?" I asked the young, expecting mother.
"Of course!" she said without the slightest bit of hesitation.
"I'm thinking of having one as-well!" Blurted a girl sitting across from the girl I had just spoken to, right next the one expecting.
"Why?" I asked.
"Cause I loooove babies!" she replied.
They all laughed.
I sat silent as the trio rambled on about something else - totally oblivious to the questions I had asked. I proceeded to ask the first girl one last question.
"So um, this is just a fad?" I said in desperation to study their behaviors.
"No." She said after taking a draw from her cigarette. "It's becoming the norm. Why not have children when you're young enough to be their best friends?"
"Jesus, how many at your school are pregnant?"
"Um, three, I think...oh wait...Four...yep, Four."
"Hmmm, well, good luck! See ya around!" I nod to the mother-to-be and glance around the table of girls, living it up before they graduate and go their separate ways.
Imagine taking your lovely date to the senior prom. The time of your life forever captured by this one moment. Dancing, dining, laughing, and eventually, if you're lucky, banging her wildly in the backseat of your '79 Trans Am. Pass out the condoms in the men's room and rock the night away in the school parking lot. Ah, good times. But suddenly, she lets you in on her little secret of avoiding college, ha-ha! Why, have a child! Ah yes, that's it - the perfect cure to keep from succeeding in life, for college life is too hard and the parents are bastards, anyway. No sense in these condoms, I suppose...we're going to be parents! Horrible. Horrible. Apparently having children right out of high school is a trend that some girls are fucking up their lives with. Single parent, eighteen, no job, living with parents...GREAT! Nothing's more attractive.
I recall two weeks ago at Gatsby's, a local nightclub that features 2 for 1 screwdriver specials and scarcely covered girls. Many are underage and simply get in by their low-cut shirts. I sat near a gathering of girls on the verge of graduating. Class of 2007. They weren't there celebrating the completion of high school, but celebrating the recently announced news that their friend had conceived. I'm normally not social, more of a loner who simply observes. But once I've downed a few hard drinks, I go from being a librarian to becoming Keith Richards. Needless to say, I infringed on these poor, young girls in a ferocious way. They took it well, given that I rudely asked why she was knocked up and why they were celebrating her dismissal from late-night partying to raising and taking care of a screaming child?
"Cause it's cool," one of the young girls said, sitting closest to the bar where I was drinking.
"Jesus God!" I replied in shock. "Why the hell would someone want to have a kid right out of high school just because it was the cool thing to do?"
"She loves her boyfriend and wants to stay here with him."
"Versus?"
"Going to Vanderbilt."
"So, she had a child with this guy to keep from going to Vanderbilt."
"Yeah, basically."
Mother of screaming God, I thought. What ever happened to just saying no? I proceeded to ask more questions and drink harder from the news I just heard.
"So, are you happy?" I asked the young, expecting mother.
"Of course!" she said without the slightest bit of hesitation.
"I'm thinking of having one as-well!" Blurted a girl sitting across from the girl I had just spoken to, right next the one expecting.
"Why?" I asked.
"Cause I loooove babies!" she replied.
They all laughed.
I sat silent as the trio rambled on about something else - totally oblivious to the questions I had asked. I proceeded to ask the first girl one last question.
"So um, this is just a fad?" I said in desperation to study their behaviors.
"No." She said after taking a draw from her cigarette. "It's becoming the norm. Why not have children when you're young enough to be their best friends?"
"Jesus, how many at your school are pregnant?"
"Um, three, I think...oh wait...Four...yep, Four."
"Hmmm, well, good luck! See ya around!" I nod to the mother-to-be and glance around the table of girls, living it up before they graduate and go their separate ways.