The Road Not Taken

“There but for the grace of God go I.”- John Bradford

In  three months I’ll be 22 years old. It’s kinda scary, honestly. I feel so….adult, all of a sudden. I’m just getting used to being 21 years old, it can’t possibly be time for another year to get tacked on! Of course, I’m thankful that I’ve made it this far and I’m well on my way to accomplishing some of my life goals. While perusing Facebook this morning I discovered that yet another high school friend of mine was pregnant. I didn’t even know what to say. She was one of my best friends back then. We were both in the orchestra, on the honor roll, had overprotective mothers and couldn’t wait to go to college. She wanted to be a doctor, and she majored in biology. She was supposed to graduate in the spring, like me, but her baby is due any day now and I just wonder– what will happen to her? With her plans interrupted so close to the finish line, will she even get to finish college? Is the baby’s father going to help her raise the child? Will she ever make it to medical school? Of course, she could be giving it up for adoption but that’s still a burden to carry. You can find anybody now, so it’s almost a given that someday she will have to explain to her child why she thought it was better to give him/her away. She’s such a lovely girl and really smart, and I just never thought she would end up in this situation…

Now, let me say I don’t want to seem like I’m judging her. We all have lapses in judgment, they  just usually don’t have consequences this dire. Fortunately for me, I’ve made very few mistakes that couldn’t be undone. Over the past few years a lot of folks have failed/dropped out of school, and a few girls have gotten pregnant. But this isn’t somebody I’m casually acquainted with, this is someone who I went on double dates with, passed notes to in class, and had over for sleepovers. In a lot of ways, this girl could have been me! And that’s what really freaks me out. If I had made just one bad decision, or been in that unlucky 1-3%, my life could be TOTALLY different. It just makes me wonder, what other bullets have I dodged?

One thing I know for sure is that I’m grateful to have made it this far relatively unscathed. And all of a sudden, a few more tests and a couple of  research papers don’t seem like the worst thing in the world to have to deal with right now…

 

 

Just a bit of comic relief.