Focus on Colleen
Hello. My name is Colleen. I am 19 years old and a senior in high school. My parents got divorced when I was just 3 leaving me living with my mother and her boyfriend. I absolutely HATED living with them and I ran away from home at age 13. I was not in school, and using drugs heavily. I started prostituting just to have money to eat, and soon I was in legal trouble. When I was arrested at the age of 14 I was sent back home to live with my mother and her boyfriend. It was definately not the ideal situation and I started sleeping around with the boys in my school. I would sleep with anyone, for almost anything.
I wasn't only sleeping around, I was hurting myself. It started with hair pulling and pinching, and graduated to cutting and burning shortly after. It was the week before my 15th birthday that I passed out from loosing to much blood after a cutting session. I woke up in the hospital with my dad, the doctor and the news that I was in serious trouble. I was very pregnant and neither myself or the baby was healthy at all.
The surprise of being pregnant devasted me. I did NOT want to be pregnant, let alone with a baby who I didn't even know where to start looking for it's father. My initial thoughts were 'I have to have an abortion'. I probably would have, if it weren't for the selfish reason that I was already 19 weeks and I didn't want to have the harder procedure. Thoughts of suicide came and went through my head, and the cutting and burning became worse and worse.
Finally my mother did something for me. She allowed me to go and live with my father. I haven't heard from her since and I'm glad. My dad got me the help that I needed and I turned my life around. My son Neil was born March 3, 2002 and I would be dead in a gutter somewhere without him. Since going to live with my dad I have accomplished more in my life than I ever had the ambition to do before. Athough I still harbour alot of anger and resentment towards my mother, I am forever grateful that she allowed me to come live with my dad, and let him help me.
Where Am I Now?
I'm finishing highschool, well behind my classmates, and probably behind my son's father. But I'm doing it. I can not wait until I graduate in June with Neil beside me. I plan to go to University next year to study Psych/Sociology and I can't wait. Neil is growing like a weed and amazingly healthy, considering he was born full term weighing only 4.5 pounds. He is happy and both my dad and I are so in love with him, we would be lost if I hadn't gotten pregnant. Just a little note everyone that if I can do it, then you most definately can as well.