Lala

After falling recklessly in love at age 18, despite my parents’ and friends’ dismay, I thought I had found my soulmate. Next I gave him my virginity and assumed we would be together forever. My birth control failed, and then so did my love for him.

“The word terrified me. I knew it would terrify my father.”

He drove me to the clinic Thanksgiving weekend. A struggle with epilepsy had left me worrying for my pregnancy, and the unknown effects of my different medications set my mind into a panic. A struggle with who I was and who I wanted to become left me worrying for myself and the life I had ahead of me.

I took the pills alone, suffered alone, and ultimately ended up without him. The word terrified me. I knew it would terrify my father. A man of faith, my best friend. “The decisions you make now impact the rest of your life,” he’d said.

Yet my father accepted my decision with open arms, no questions asked, and a kiss on the forehead. He is happy with the life I lead. I am happy with the life I lead. I am healthy, happy, full of love and sweetness. I wish this for every woman who is faced with this decision. “The decisions you make now impact the rest of your life”—it is your decision to make. No one else’s.