Susan Ashley

I fell in love with my daughter when she was growing inside me. I couldn’t believe I could love so much. I was seventeen. I was kicked out of my father’s house. I had no money. I had very few possessions. As I was leaving my dad’s house he mumbled something like, “You are white trash. You will never finish high school. You will live off welfare and if you’re lucky you’ll end up in a nasty trailer park. Your baby will be just like you. It’ll have nothing and it will be your fault.”

I moved to Missouri in a small town, where my mother lived. My daughter’s father followed a month later. I was taking a home economics class. In this class, I learned that statistically my father was right. I probably wouldn’t finish High school. I would probably live on welfare and my baby, still growing inside me didn’t have much of a chance.

I moved back to Indiana. I was 8 ½ months pregnant. All of our belongings fit in a two door car. We moved into a very small one-bedroom apartment.

I gave birth to a beautiful, healthy daughter on July 10, 1993. When she was just hours old, I started crying because I knew that I already screwed up her life.

She started her life sleeping in a laundry basket. I married and divorced her father before she was 2. We moved six times before she was 5.  

I did some things right. I got my GED. I worked hard as a photographer. I read to her every night. (I love statistics and I read that reading to your child improved their chances academically.) There was always plenty of food and books in our home.

I got a lot wrong. Our power and phone were shut off more times than I care to remember. We were homeless for a short period.

I read another statistic that said the more college a mother has the more chances her child has at going to college. I enrolled. Susan was in middle school.

Some mothers dream of the day their daughter gets married, not me. I have always dreamt of the day that my daughter beat the statistics, despite me screwing up her life before she was even born. I’ve dreamt of the day she would graduate from college.

I love statistics but I knew I wasn’t raising a statistic. My daughter has proven over and over again that she can accomplish anything. She continues to rise above everyone’s expectation.

She graduates from college in a week and half!!!! I can’t begin to explain my joy and excitement. I am so proud of her.  I feel incredibly honored to be her mother. She is graduating with a degree in marketing and a minor in public relations. Did I mention she is graduating debt free? She is also getting paid to get her master’s degree.

Statistics

41 percent of young adults with LD complete post-secondary education within eight years of leaving high school, as compared to 52 percent of young adults without LD.

Children of teen mothers perform worse on many measures of school readiness, are 50 percent more likely to repeat a grade, and are more likely than children born to older mothers to drop out of high school.

Many children born to teen moms have behavioral problems, juvenile delinquency and conflict with authority.

Two-thirds of families begun by a young unmarried mother are poor. More than half of all mothers on welfare had their first child as a teenager.

Daughters of teen moms are three times more likely to become teenage mothers themselves.