Reality is not even close to fantasy...

The prince comes along and rescues the princess with a kiss and their destiny is to live happily ever after....

BUT, that is not what happened. Life had a different plan for me and I was unprepared for it. In February of 1969, I missed my period, I wasn't alarmed at first because my sweetheart and I had been fighting a bit and I felt stressed, so I thought it might be that I was just off balanced. We also had only made love a few times so I was sure that everything was just a little delayed.  I waited...I waited some more until March rolled around and I missed it again, there was no denying it now.
I was pregnant.

How could this be happening to me was what immediately went through my mind. When the real question should of been: how could this NOT have happened to me.  We were two 17 year old kids that were caught up in our teenage raging hormones. Not for one minute did either of us think about pregnancy. We did not use any sort of birth control. Birth control pills were just being presented to the public, and you needed a signed permission from a parent to get them from a doctor. At that age I still had never even been to see an OB doctor. If you wanted prophylactics, they were kept behind the counter at the drug store where you had to ask the pharmacist for them. Neither of these options were ever talked about between the two of us. So how could this NOT happen?

Now what? Once again my fantasy took over and even though I was scared I thought that everything would be alright because after all we loved each other. I kept this "secret" to myself  for a few more weeks, trying to sort out what I was going to say to him, to my parents and to my friends. It eventually became to big for me to carry anymore alone so I told a good friend. This at least allowed me to release some of my thoughts and after long heartfelt conversations I decided that I would tell my sweetheart first. I thought together hand in hand we would face the rest of it together. Telling our parents, letting everyone know how much in love we were and that this child was proof of that love.

Ah, the sweet mind of a 17 year old girl.  I remember that we made arrangements to meet in the auditorium of the school. I remember that we were sitting side by side when I told him. I thought he would be fearful like I was in how we were going to tell our parents that plans had changed and that we would be getting married after graduation. I remember I thought he would take me in his arms and tell me everything was going to be alright, and that we would face our future together.

However, that is not what happened.

He got mad, furious even, asking me how could I have let this happen. How could I be so silly as to try to trap him into marriage. Didn't I remember that he was going to college, he was smart, and he was going to make a mark for himself. Because at least one of us aspired to better them self. How could I possibly be so stupid as to think that there would be a happy ending. And just how was he going to explain this to his parents? He grabbed his things and got up and stormed off, leaving me there to cry uncontrollably by myself.

I was alone, I was pregnant and I was 17 years old.