TEENAGE MOTHERS.

In the United States, approximately 1/3 of young women become pregnant in their teenage years. More than 80% of teen pregnancies are unintended and unintentional. Each year, about 1 million teenage girls become pregnant. Regardless of how early or late a young woman is in her teens, there are more risks of birth defects occurring from teenage girls. Teenage girls are less likely to gain the amount of weight needed for the baby to grow healthy. Some causes of teenage pregnancies are sexual behavior, lack of knowledge about contraceptions, age discrepencies in relationships, sexual abuse, dating violence, poverty, to get government money, and the environment in which they were brought up. I went onto http://www.ask.com/ and I asked, "Why do teenage girls get pregnant?" A lot of websites came up about teen pregnancy, but one of them caught my interest the most. Some other reasons why that teenage girls get pregnant are because some girls use pregnancy to rebel against their parents, they are missing love or emotional needs at home and try to get them fulfilled in other ways, lack of control so they use pregnancy to gain control, to keep their boyfriend from leaving, and/or because pregnancy is very strong within their culture. There are many reasons why teenage girls get pregnant, another reason may just be because it was an honest accident, condom might have broke, a girl may have forgotten to take her birth control that day. Most societies do not support teenage pregnancies. It is irresponsible, burdens the lives of other people whom had no help in creating a child, and puts the teenager's life on pause. Despite the obvious cons of teenage pregnancies, just like everything else there are pros. A teenager will learn the true definition of responsibility and discontinue their self-centered ways. They will no longer think about theirself, but care for someone other than themselves. Before the child is born, all the stresses seem difficult and inevitable, but in many cases once the child is born all the stresses seems worth it. Some teenage girls do not intend to get pregnant as others may. If you were a teenager and you accidently get pregnant, what would you do?

THE "PREGNANT MAN"

In April of 2008, there was a woman/man named Thomas Beatie. When I first heard about "him," I thought he was an actual man that magically became pregnant. To my disappointment, I was wrong. Apparently, this "man" was formerly a woman who had surgery to portray herself as a man. I was highly upset about this because everyone made such a big deal about it. HE'S NOT A MAN! HE WAS A WO-MAN! There was an article that I was reading about him from ABC.com and Thomas said he has the right to bear a child. Of course he does, he has woman organs. I understand the controversy of the whole thing because some people think it's kind of demeaning towards the child which may be true. If I found out my father was previously a woman before I wouldn't be surprised, but it would definately be a life turning event. That's besides the point of my argument though. I understand why it was such a big deal, but in my opinion when it came down to it, he is still a she. Besides the big issue, I was just angry because the media kept saying "He is having a baby." Maybe "he" refers to himself as a "he," but "he" is still a she if "he" can have babies. Maybe I'm just ignorant because I refuse to refer her as a him. I don't care whether she wanted to be both, she can call herself a he all she wants, but in my opinion, she can't be a he if she has a baby! (Just a little pet peeve of mine :P )

OCTUPLETS' MOTHER AT iT AGAiN !

I was reading an article about the mother of the octuplets that have just been recently born. Because she already had 6 children, she was receiving $490 a month in food stamps and collecting Social Security disability payments for three of the kids. Now, the taxpayers of California are going to have to pay more to help her pay for her 14 kids. She has a website http://thenadyasulemanfamily.com/ now that is made for collecting donations from people that want to donate money towards them. It is now becoming a controversy in California because many taxpayers do not feel that it is they're responsibility to support her 14 children and I agree with them. From one perspective, it was not the people of California who agreed to implant 8 embryos into Nadya Suleman when she already had 6 children, therefore, they should not have to pay child support. From another perspective, regardless of what Nadya Suleman's irresponsibility has created, those babies are going to need to be cared for so they can live healthy lives. They did not ask to be brought into this world so they shouldn't have to suffer the consequences of their mother's idiocracy. So many people are outraged by this that Nadya has received death threats and such from people. In my opinion, the babies should be helped not to help the mother, but help them.

ORiENTATiON EXPERiENCE

Yesterday, I went to the orientation so I could begin volunteering at Virtua Hospital. It was supposed to be from 5:00 to 6:30, but it ended up only being an hour. Usually orientations are extremely boring, but this one was great because it had cookies, crackers and cheese, and beverages as well. YUM :) I'm very excited about volunteering there. The people in the hospital are very nice and welcoming. I had no idea that hospitals use so many volunteers. I thought that there weren't going to be many people there, but to my surprise, every seat was filled. Most of the topics that were discussed during the orientation were rules and job opportunities. The rules aren't very demanding, more like common sense. For example, high school students that volunteer there have to wear yellow polo shirts that says junior volunteer and we must have a photo ID on at all times. I might as well invest all my money in polos because they seem to be all I wear anymore because I need them for school, work, and now to volunteer (great!). I also have to take a PPD test and a guidance reference form completed before I can start to volunteer. I'm sure Egan is going to love this! For people that don't know what a PPD test is because I surely didn't before I went here, it is a tuberculosis test. Tuberculosis is a deadly disease caused by mycobacteria (fungus). It usually attacks your lungs, but can also affect the central nervous system, the lymphatic system which carries clear fluid to your organs, the circulatory system which is nutrients, bones, joints, skin, and other types of systems in your body. Most of the job opportunites that the director of volunteers discussed weren't topics that I need for my senior project. They were more like doing admissions, water pitchers, making beds, and such. I talked to Diane (director) prior to the orientation and at the end of the orientation and she told me that she has a girl in the ultrasound department, but that until she's finished she will try to put me somewhere in radiology. I think it's great because now I can touch other aspects of radiology as well. Ms. Williams that is the social worker here just so happens to be her niece! It really is a small world! I'm very excited to start my internship there.

ORiENTATiON

Today is the first time I'm going to be going to visiting my sponsor. I have orientation there from 5:00 to 6:30. I'm kind of nervous because I'm going to be doing this alone, but then again I'm not because I'm pretty confident that I'm going to be fine. The only things I'm nervous about is: what to wear, where I have to go when I get there, who do I talk to, etc. They didn't give me too much information in the e-mail, but I just remember the woman Diane Theckston who is in charge of the volunteer program there said that I'm going to have to fill out paperwork and such. I suck at paper work, but HEY I have to learn how to do these things because my mom isn't going to be doing it for me forever! I just want to get started doing this internship already because I've had to wait so long to start and I feel like I'm behind because others already have the ball rolling. I'm ready, but nervous, but most of all excited. :)

My favorite person in the world.

My favorite person in the world is my niece. My niece is 2 years-old and goes by the name of Cyanni Danielle Romero. Her mother (my sister) stole the name from me because it was my idea so I guess you can say that I named her! :] This little girl is amazing. There is nothing boring or bad about her, she is a work of perfection. Ever since she was a little baby, she has been a semi-angel. I say "semi" because she can be a pretty tough cookie also! When she gets angry, SHE GETS ANGRY. I guess that must be a family trait because most of the girls in my family are like that. Anyway, I find her so fantastic because she has such a great personality. She must be the most goofy, smart, sneaky 2 year-old I have every met. One day I was at my sister's house and I was extremely tired so I was laying down with my niece. When my sister came home from the laundry mat, my sister and I began to talk. When I look in the direction my niece was previously laying down at, she was gone! I didn't think of anything because she is always everywhere in the house. Something caught my eye and it was her peeking out from behind the door then I looked at her and she left and my sister was talking so I didn't pay much attention to what my niece was doing. All of a sudden, my niece comes from behind the door again, but this time I can see her whole body and what is she up to you may be wondering? This little girl must have taken my phone from underneath my pillow when I wasn't paying attention and she was standing before me with it in her hand, laughing harder than I have ever heard her laugh while I was staring at her dumbfounded. When it finally clicked, I jumped out of the bed in a split second and screamed her name and chased her into the living room. She got a head start so the little brat threw my phone across the room! For some reason, I just could not be mad at her for it. I just thought it was the cutest thing so all I could do was pick her up and tickle her until she couldn't breathe. It was hilarious and to this day I cannot help, but laugh everytime I think about that or just her in general. She's amazing and I love her to death.

FRUSTRATiON!

So, it's my senior year in high school, I'm going to be 18 soon and I'm trying to prepare myself to become an adult. Unfortunately, I don't feel like I'm being given the opportunity to. My parents make me feel so aggravated and frustrated that as soon as I step in the door, I feel like I have 100 tons weighing me down every minute that I'm there. I'm so overwhelmed with school and work that when I come home all I hear is, "Brooke, is your room clean?!" I JUST CLEANED IT YESTERDAY! LEAVE ME ALONE! The only discussions I ever have with my parents are about MY ROOM and they text me about what I want to eat for dinner. It's my stuff, if there aren't any clothes on the floor, my room is vacuumed and dusted, and its neat, how much cleaner do I have to make it?? It's just so hard to satisfy them and now I just don't want to anymore. All my life, my mom was always on top of me about my grades. If I have a C, its literally the end of the world. What makes me so mad about it is that if I see that I have a C, I bring it up without them having to tell me anything, but they never say anything about that. They say I'm so negative, but I wonder where I get it from? Ponder. They make me not even want to try in school because they annoy me so bad. They get mad that I don't open up to them, but when I do, they jump down my throat, they don't listen and when I tell them I just want to be alone, I'm being disrespectful and they don't talk to me. WHAT IS THAT SOLVING?! They always complain that I'm never home and don't spend anytime with them. I HAVE TO SPEND 6 1/2 HOURS IN SCHOOL AND THEN AN ADDITIONAL 4 1/2 HOURS AT WORK! It was them that was telling me, "Brooke, you need a job," and now that I'm home by 9 o'clock every night it's a problem! The thing that really "grinds my gears" as Peter off of the show Family Guy says, is that when I am home THEY AREN'T SPENDING TIME WITH ME EITHER! For example, last weekend I did not go out AT ALL except when it was for work and I stepped out to go to Friendly's with my friend Gina, but right after I was home. I'm always in the living room when I'm home so I'm always within reach to be conversed with and where are they when I'm watching t.v. in the living room which is 5 footsteps from their room? In their room! How do they expect me to spend time with them if I'm never home when they are and when I am, they go to their room?? And I'm always the one to blame for everything. I have an attitude problem, I'm distant, I don't talk to anyone, and it's all my fault. Like what do you want from me? I go home and I can't even sleep at night anymore, I always wake up at 3 in the morning automatically. Who knows why because I sure don't? I just want to be given the opportunity to stay out for a weekend (two days) so I can get my head together because being at home obviously does not help whatsoever and what do I get, "No, your not coming in and out as you please." I asked for ONE WEEKEND TO MYSELF! Is that really too much to ask? Sheesh! I rather just leave and be on my own and do things my way without having to rely on them for everything. I think that's the issue, they want me to rely on them for everything and I don't want to anymore. I hate asking them to go anywhere or to use the car for something as simple as going down the street to get food because I get this long speech about MY ROOM. I just cleaned it, how many times do you want me to clean it thoroughly?! EVERY DAY?! Ugh, parents can be so annoying! I'm trying to grow up and they just will not let me. I don't understand why because my sister was staying in NY at her boyfriend's house when she was my age and I can't even go to my friend's house for a weekend so I can clear my head and relax! It's so stupid. I'm leaving.

Octuplets.

During one of our group discussions, I was stressing the fact that I feel my senior project topic is not as broad as others might be. As soon as I said that, so many people began to give me ideas about what I could blog about and one of them really stood out to me. I didn't even hear about this because I haven't been up-to-date on my current events, but one of my classmates told me about a woman who just had EIGHT BABIES! Not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven, but EIGHT BABIES! THAT'S INSANE! Who would have ever thought for a woman to be able to carry eight babies in her stomach for nine months?! I could only imagine what her ultrasounds must have looked like. What I think is even more insane is the fact that she already had 6 kids prior to her having 8 more. You would think only rich people would do crazy things like this because they actually have money to support 14 kids, but no. This woman is an average woman who just filed for bankruptcy and lost her home. What was she thinking?! Apparently, she took fertility drugs to get pregnant and somehow ended up with 8 kids instead of 1. All of her children are below the age of EIGHT. The six kids she already had prior to the pregnancy are 7, 6, 5, 3, and a set of twins whom are 2. CRAZY! She just recently had 6 boys and 2 girls whom were prematurely birthed, but are healthy as can be. At first, I thought this occured naturally, but to my disappointment, it wasn't. It occured due to vitro fertilization. Vitro fertilization is an assisted reproduction process. A man's sperm and the woman's egg are combined in a laboratory dish where the fertilization happens. Then the embryo that is created is placed back inside the woman where it develops naturally. Since is happened, the woman isn't receiving blessings from people, she's receiving outrages from people because the media thinks she is stupid for bringing 8 more kids into the world that she cannot support.