Unexpected Pregnancy

“We’ve learned we were pregnant during the fall 2014 finals, I remember like it was yesterday, one night I finished a jar of cornichons when I was studying for my exams, I left one in a jar just so I can say I didn’t finish the whole thing. As a joke my bf told me “you are pregnant or what?”. I laughed. Then I did the maths and wasn’t laughing anymore. The morning after I took a pregnancy test while my partner was still asleep and it was a +, I woke him up to tell him. First he though he was dreaming so didn’t react much, apart from grumbling and turning to the other side. I was so worried, all by myself waiting for him to wake up.

He woke up 5 min later, 5 longest minutes of my life. When he woke up and told me : “ did I dream or did you just say that you were pregnant?”. We went to get another pregnancy test, that turned positive. We looked at each other and at that moment someone came knocking at our door: His parents were bringing us to a family brunch. I remember feeling so nervous because, even though we had started talking about kids, we were more thinking for 5 years from that moment. Not right away. It was the weirdest meal I’ve even been to, I had no idea what he was thinking, if he wanted to keep it or not, how he felt about any of this. The meal lasted 3 hours, 3 hours of me staring at my plate and refusing mimosas.

When we got home, we finally had the talk, we decided to keep our little surprise habitant in my belly and started thinking about how we
will announce it to our families.

A few weeks later, Winter semester started and classes began again. By the finals, I started to show and I remember my classmates started

staring, at first I was angry, angry that people judged me when they didn’t know me. But anger was soon replaced by determination, I needed to ace all my exams. I couldn’t afford to fail one single exam or I wouldn’t graduate on time. I needed to get my Bs. Degree before my due date. Summer semester was the most difficult, it was a hot summer and I was felt huge and exhausted, i remember my professors giving me lifts to the different building so I wouldn’t have to walk, I remember, the director of the program lending me his office so I could take a nap and me falling a sleep during the break or requesting the leave the room during some exams to go pee.It was not as I planned it, it was not easy, and I couldn’t have  done it without the support of my now-husband and my professors.

I strongly believe that navigating through this unplanned pregnancy really brought me to the mom, wife and professional I am today. People describe me as someone who gets shit done, is goal focused, determined and fights for what she wants. And that’s exactly what I have become thanks to this unexpected experience that changed my life. I’m proud of her, of us, and not shy to say I’m proud of the person I’ve become.”

Instagram:@lo_ng