Blast From The Past

I know I know, I never post.  Quite frankly there’s a whole new kind of drama in my life with all the wedding stuff, so I just don’t have the time these days 😦  However…I had a real blast from the past last week and this one needed to be shared.  Those of you who have been with me for the long haul might remember a little darling I had my first year who I called ‘Tequila’.  If you are new, check her out here. 

I was coming back from lunch the other day and had started walking my class down the 2-block long hallway to our homeroom when I saw her.  She had her back to me and was standing in the doorway to another classroom but I swear to you I knew it was her after a split-second.  I also knew (although I have no idea how) that she must be pregnant.  It was the only explanation for why she might be back for a visit.  I was right.  She turned around to expose a gigantic bare-belly despite the cold because really, why buy maternity clothes if you can just make due with the extra-small t-shirts you already own, I mean hey, at least they covered the top half of her torso. 

She shrieked when she saw me and came over to try and hug me and have a little chat.  Let’s just say time and pregnancy have not done Tequila any favors.  My kids were aghast and staring with open jaws for the two minute conversation in which she revealed that she had never completed the 8th grade (she transferred out of our school halfway through her 8th grade year with us), wasn’t sure who the father of the baby was, but she was living with the mom of one of the possibilities and she was due at the end of next month. 

I have to say, the only thing that really surprised me is that she managed to make it all the way to 17 before getting pregnant.  As I thought about this later it also made me really sad that she came all the way back to her freakin’ middle school, to which she barely bothered to show up while she was actually enrolled, because it’s probably the place she has gotten the most support ever in her entire life.  She was way more than I could handle my first year, and while I don’t think there’s much any of us could have done to really help change the trajectory of her life, it is sad that she is continuing her family’s cycle of teen pregnancy with no father in the picture.  I wished her luck and she set off to see a few more of her old teachers.  I really do hope she is ok, but it is terrifying to think of her with a baby that she has to be responsible for pretty much all on her own.