My Young Life

Twenty-two years old and I still have decades of life ahead of me. Instead of wondering where I will be in twenty years, I worry about whether my daughter wants cereal or waffles for breakfast.

When you become a mother, your priorities get pushed back a bit, as your child becomes number one.

There are a lot of things I have never experienced and never will because I decided to become a young parent.  These include: no dorm rooms, no campus life, no spontaneous wild nights, no partying at my house, and no random road trips.

Honestly, the word “spontaneous” completely changes after becoming a mother. Spontaneous may be a decision to drive to an apple orchard or the zoo tomorrow. Maybe, spontaneous is when I open the freezer and pull out ice cream sandwiches!

However, for the first few months, I lived vicariously through my friends’ adventures as I sat at home breastfeeding. Slowly, it occurred to me that these adventures were not as thrilling to me as I expected. All the things I was sacrificing, started to look less great. I enjoy being a mommy.

Nevertheless, young mothers do make sacrifices that are frequently overlooked. We give up all the things people say adolescents should experience before entering adulthood, so we can be better moms – the new generation of moms.

What is pleasant about being a twenty-two year old mother is that I am ahead of the game. In order to raise my daughter well, I have been working hard since the day I graduated to try and reach a middle class life.

Sometimes I joke and tell my friends that when I’m 34 years old, I will be cruising through the Bahamas, childfree and enjoying myself as they raise their toddlers. It’s a combination of “rubbing-it-in” and turning what we view as a negative into a positive.

In the end though, my life as a young mother is filled with challenges, learning how to nurture and fulfilling my child’s needs. There is not one mother who doesn’t experience those things so I know we will be all right.