Teen mom OG

Hey guys!!
First off, thank you to all the people who took the time to read my “20 Facts” post! I received incredible feed back 😀
This post is a little bit more serious… I decided to write about my experience as a Teen mom.
Many of you reading know…or found out by reading my last post that my oldest son, Jayden Ray, was born when I was 16 years old… automatically classifying me as a quote on quote “Teen mom”.
I want to be honest with you all, I had such a hard time trying to figure out how I would write going forward. but I decided to just write my posts the way I would talk to my family and friends. I don’t want to put up a front on my blog because that’s not me. ANYWHO, I will stop rambling now…. 😉
I’ve always wanted to share my story..when I was 15 years old, I found out what I was pregnant with Jayden…I still remember the day like it was yesterday. I couldn’t believe it. I was SO scared.. especially to tell my mom. She worked so hard to try to avoid this. She WAS NOT happy at all to say the least. But she stuck by me and said “Heydy, you want to act like an adult, you have to deal with consequences”. So I did just that. I went through my pregnancy and did all the necessary steps to be successful. I was SO adamant that I was not going to be a statistic.
So I enrolled into the Young Parent Program that is offered here in Vancouver. If you are wondering what that is.. It is a program to help “Young Parents” who are pregnant, have a newborn, toddler, or child, complete high school. It is actually an amazing program and if it wasn’t for that program I don’t know where I would be right now.
Dragging myself out of bed every morning, with little to no sleep, to go to school was difficult. Especially, knowing that I had to commute 45 mins, on a bus & train, with a baby, to get to there . BUT, I did it, every school day for two years (unless my mom was feeling nice and drove me :P). You never really know what your capable of until you have no other choice.
Well, I’m lucky that I did drag myself out of bed, because I was able to get a scholarship to go to college. Which, coming from a low-income family, was a huge deal.
I graduated from high school in June 2009 and I knew if I didn’t go to college right away, I wouldn’t want to go in the future. So, I decided to take the Legal Administrative Assistant program and started that in September 2009. I was also able to manage to work P/T on the weekends so I had money to support myself.
I really didn’t want to go on welfare…so this was my life for 5 years, going to school and working. I hated the fact that I had to put Jay in daycare since birth. It hurts me to think I missed out on some of his milestones.
I managed to get a job as a LAA 6 months after I graduated from college in Feb 2011, and while I was looking for a LAA position I worked as a sales associate at one of the malls in Vancouver.

FINALLY! the day came that I was able to support myself and Jayden (that took a while) and I got a position as a LAA. All my hard work had paid off. I LOVE that I decided to go school, and I really want to go back to school to become a Paralegal.
I could go on and on, but I won’t because Abel is getting up. If you are wondering, I did go through a lot of trial and tribulations. I’ve moved countless of times, I worked so many different jobs, I went through a major break-up with Jayden’s dad causing many times in the courtroom. I’ve gotten plenty of stares from strangers, called names, and been told that I made a mistake keeping Jayden. I kept my head held high and of course I wanted to give up, but it just wasn’t an option for me.
IT WAS ALL WORTH IT & I would not take anything back.

Jayden will be turning 8 this September and it brings tears to my eyes thinking of everything we had to go through together. He made me who I am today. I believe that God sent Jayden to me at the right time and I’m so glad he did because I was headed down the wrong path.

I really want my experience as a teen mom to be heard so that any other young mom who is currently going through what I went through, knows, that it is NOT impossible to be successful, you just have to work EXTRA hard for it. I may not be rich with money, but I am rich with so many other things.

I wouldn’t be here without the support of my family and friends. They constantly encouraged me to move forward and to never give up. Because, in the end, after all my struggles and hardships as a teen mom, I am HAPPY with my life. I mean isn’t that the ultimate goal ?Thank you to all for reading and if you would like to ask me any question feel free to do so!
If you know a young/teen mom, lift them up, empower them, encourage them. If you are a teen/young mom then keep going because all the hardships are worth the rewards.
Lots of Love,
Heydy xoxo