Me Being Serious

Our Callous World - A PSA Speech on Teenage Pregnancy

You walk down the street and see a fifteen-year-old girl with her son. You walk pass, thinking it’s a common sight.

You turn on your television and see shows like “Teen Mom” and “16 And Pregnant”. You smirk and think, “Well this is entertaining.”

You read a newspaper and see the title “Approximately 1 million teenage girls become pregnant each year in the United States”. You shrug and say, “What else is new?”

In a world that is rapidly changing, money is our first priority. Adults dive into the spin of working and earning, stay oblivious to everything else and convince themselves that it was for a good cause. Crime increase everyday as people get more and more desperate, so much that hardly anyone care anymore if it’s to be on the news that two man slit the throat of an old lady for the 50 dollars bill in her bag.

And as the world got caught in this whirl-wind of struggling for survival and greed, the children, the ones who are too young to catch up, got left behind, alone, and almost forgotten.

There’s a quote by anonymous, saying: “Teenagers - The most misunderstood people on planet earth: treated like children but are expected to act like adults.” But who are they to complain? Their parents work hard day and night to make sure they have enough to eat, to wear and to have a proper education and all they have to do is behave and have a good enough test score. Comparing to their parents’ struggle, their little problems were not worth anyone’s time. 

But once too much little problems get bottled for too long, they would soon reach the point where they would burst out like a water balloon, unable to stay content any longer. The explosion along with the recklessness of someone trying to discover themselves would lead to unimaginable consequences.

It starts with a little rebel, trying to catch attention but then moves on to more serious issues. At the transition age from children to adult, teenagers dive into what they believe to be “adult’s behavior”. The thin line between right and wrong is blurred to their naïve selves and the dark and corrupted side of society didn’t miss a beat in grabbing the opportunity. With no one to guide them, they stumbled right into the trap. They live the moment, experience the sinful pleasure they never thought was within their reach, enjoy the thrill of breaking rules and tasting the delusional glimpse of freedom that their mind so innocently believe that comes with independence and adulthood. In their minds they recall holding no responsibilities, and the consequences never once pass their mind.

But when reality finally crash upon them, it was like a violent slap back to the real world, where freedom and the feeling of independence that they can control their own lives are just mere illusions and the consequences of the actions are tangible and undeniable; and there’s nothing they can do to go back and erase the past.

And what are the adults’ reactions to it? At first the whole world was shocked with the news. We wondered in disbelieve how has the young generation come to commit such an unimaginable action. We shook our heads in disapproval when we read about it in the newspaper, and in disgust if we were to face a real life situation. But still, no serious actions were done except for the showing of, if not completely repulsed, then not so positive reaction.

And as fast as the news rose, it died since apparently people have more things to worry about than acknowledging and care about the climbing number of teenage pregnancies. If those kids have the nerves to fool around trying to act like adults, they should face the consequences like adults. That was the common thought. And just like that, teenage pregnancy slipped off the front page and became another topic for the gossip table and inspiration for televisions to make another show for the purpose of entertainment.

Is this what the world has become? Is this what money has done to us, brainwash us to notice nothing to be more important than the cash in our hands? We have become cold and oblivious to everything around us. We have failed to recognize others’ pain and agony and just turn to chase our own greed. We couldn’t see pass the false façade to see the seemingly small problems that can threaten our future generation. And most of all, we underestimated the warning until it was too late to take action and reality slapped us across the face mercilessly.

Approximately 1 million teenage girls become pregnant each year in the United States.

About 13% of U.S. births involve teen mothers and about 25% of teenage girls who give birth have another baby within 2 years.

Teenagers who have babies are more likely to not finish high school and have their future plans interrupted.

Just under 1/3 of all girls in the United States will get pregnant in their teenage years

Every year around 750,000 teenagers will get pregnant.

More than 2/3 of all teenagers who have a baby will not graduate from high school

Teen pregnancy can lead to depression and even suicide.

Does any of these statistics have an effect on you? Do they make you think about the future, or more important, what is going on in the young generation right now? If not, then why don’t you try asking yourself a question:

What if it was you?