While growing up you begin to comprehend what it is that you want for yourself and your future. Typically your goals change or fluctuate because of the ever-changing world; nothing is set in stone. Most people plan what they want after school or when/if they want to get married. Following that, if, when, or how many kids they want to have. Generally, people will end up becoming parents before they had planned, “Between 2015 and 2019, there were roughly 121 million unintended pregnancies globally each year,” according to the United Nations Population Fund. Sarah Busick happened to be one of those individuals.

At the age of 15, Sarah Busick started seeing signs of pregnancy. She had missed her period and started spotting. Spotting is any light bleeding outside of your typical menstrual period, this can be a sign of a condition known as PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), ectopic pregnancy, or pregnancy. She had gone to her two sisters and was told to take a pregnancy test. After the initial test came out positive her sisters said, “You need to take another test because that has to be wrong.” Breaking the news to her parents was unnerving. She believed they were disappointed yet remained supportive of whatever her decision would be.

Busick had been pregnant for six months. She had kept going into labor around January. She had missed the entire second half of her sophomore year due to being put on bedrest in January 2007. Busick was pregnant for 39 weeks, not having her daughter until March. She said her teachers had taken it easier on her, she did not end up getting many assignments or busy work. Since Busick was so young, she had a cesarean section and because of this, she was unable to go back to school until May. 

The transition to becoming a mother at 16 was difficult. She had to quit volleyball but played one more season of soccer her junior year, before ultimately ending all extracurricular activities together. “Mama [her mother] said I could keep playing, but I wouldn’t see you for days if I had games because I would go straight from school,” Busick said. She also lost the ability to have free time, and spending time with friends became an uncommon occurrence. The ability to go to college became a foreign thought, she needed to stay home and be close to her family in order to have any support raising her daughter. Sarah Busick’s young adult years were difficult and she faced a lot of hardships. In a career aspect and socially everything was different than your average young adult, and even though she had faced these challenges, she had a family who supported her through it all. She is now 33 and has four kids. I would know how difficult this all was for her because I was the product of this pregnancy.