"We aren't children."

So, as always, I was nonchalantly overhearing a conversation on the bus on the way home from an appointment. This was a happy day because the university year has ended and many of the most interesting people have gone off to their hometowns, therefore I have been encountering less and less good things to write about. As you may have noticed.

Anyways, the conversation was between a girl and a guy. The first thing that caught my attention was this: the girl casually stated that she was getting a lot of people saying that they were surprised that she was starting a family so young. After briefly listening closely, I learned that she was 18 years old and about four months pregnant. The guy she was talking to, presumably the same age, was a little quieter, but he seemed like a fairly nice guy who was just a little uncomfortable with the idea that one of his friends was pregnant and loving it.

She said that she had been with her boyfriend for a year and a half, and they had been living together for a year and three months. She was saying that she was very thankful that she was pregnant with someone she actually cared about because some of her friends had gotten pregnant with some random guy who they can't even remember having sex with.

Firstly, I want to say this: At least you aren't one of those girls, but are you nuts? I may be naive or sheltered or something, but I'm really not used to 18-year olds being happy about the fact that they're going to have a child while they are still in university (she said that she was taking a program at Waterloo).

She also said that she is going to ask her boss for more hours. She mentioned that her boyfriend was a businessman and she was a chef, so she had her life figured out. Thank God for that. Hopefully she's right.

She said that she is due sometime near her birthday and that she and her mom are going to do a "pub run", whether she has had her baby or not. Aaahh!! What are you thinking? She said that she will not drink until then, but really?? Why not wait until you have had your child until you do that, especially if it's so near your birthday?

Anyways, she seemed very exciting about it and I kinda zoned out when she started talking about how she hopes she doesn't get stretch marks.

I was thinking that if I was her friend, I would support her and stuff and try and be open-minded. However, I would smack her down if she decided to drink while still pregnant. Well. Maybe not actually, but I would definitely try and convince her that it is a BAD IDEA.

So, am I naive? Am I stupid in thinking that families should start after you have a career and happily married? Maybe.

One thing she said that interested me is that she is thankful that she's 18, which means that she is an adult and can hopefully make the right decisions. She said, "We aren't children." I would have to disagree with this, but she also said that she has been living away from home since she was 14, so maybe I misjudged her.

I'm praying for her and I really hope that something terrible doesn't happen like her boyfriend leaves her or she is coerced into drinking. Her boyfriend apparently was supportive when she told him, but still. Men are strange.

Maybe, in a few years, every family will start this young. It will be a normal thing to do, and no one will wonder or judge. No one will look at you with your stroller thinking, "She looks hardly out of high school...." No one will write posts about conversations like this, and no one will feel uncomfortable. No one will lose any respect for you. Maybe.