Pressure to Have Sex and Early Teen Pregnancy - Faith 22

Strict upbringing....

 I was raised in a very religious family whereby I was required to follow the Christian norms, to distinguish the good and the bad, what to do and what not to do. It was a rigorous upbringing, and I was restricted to many things. I would see and hear about my friends’ experiences and wished to experience them too. I tried too many times to try and have them be more lenient with the rules, but to no avail. 

“I fell in love.”

 In high school, I fell in love with a guy I loved; we started dating. Everything was good. I was happy in the relationship. But, of course, I had to keep it a secret from my parents because they had forbidden even male friends; if they knew I had a boyfriend, they would refuse me to date him. 

“Things started changing”

After high school, things started changing in our relationship. My boyfriend always wanted to have sex with me, which I was never ready for it. It went against my beliefs and values. Against everything I had been told and taught not to do. I kept telling him I was not ready and we would not have sex. But I was scared he would break up with me if I didn’t have sex with him. I wanted the relationship to work.

“My decision”

I concluded that the only way to sustain our relationship was to have sex. I agreed to it since I loved the guy. But I also didn’t want to disappoint my parents by getting pregnant at a young age. I was only 19 at that time. So I looked for different family planning methods and chose a pretty affordable pill. I started using the medicine for seven days consecutively before the first day I wanted to have sex, according to instructions. 

“I was not ready.”

 I experienced some side effects, such as headache and tiredness, for the first week then everything was ok again. I thought we would have sex once, and that would be it, but my then-boyfriend wanted to have sex every other day. I got pregnant because I was not taking the pill as I should. The one thing I was trying not to happen happened. I was terrified, scared. I could not believe it. I was not ready.

“My lesson”

I kept my child, and I became a young mother. But, looking back, I should not have compromised my beliefs and values for someone. It’s an important lesson I learnt and that I go by today.