Different Path

By Cristal Delgado

                          A beautiful day on August 2007 and I was going on a seven mile run on Cabbage Hill. I was going on a run with my coach’s, my boyfriend, and five other guys. I was the only girl, and I knew I was going to be running on my own. We got there and I had a hot flash and my body started to sweat head to toe. I was wearing orange shorts and my favorite black T-shirt (many say black makes you look skinny, and this is why I wore it). I started up the hill. I was breathing very hard. Two minutes into it I started to walk because I got a pain on my lower right side of my stomach. When women who are pregnant and run get this pain, mid through the pregnancy.   Something was wrong with me and I think I knew what it was. My boyfriend then came up behind me and ran up with me for three miles. He didn’t let me stop; he knew I needed to accomplish this. Running was my life and now I would have to stop for a long time. He looked at me, sweat dripping from my forehead to the ground. He said, “We can do this Cristal.” I smiled and said, “Shut up please, I am trying to run.” I didn’t let him tell me I was pregnant. I finished the seven mile run with a tiny little life growing inside of me. After the run I knew there was no way I was going to make this all disappear. This was happening, but I thought maybe my parents wouldn’t notice. I was going to have to take a different path in life. A path that will bring struggles in life, smiles and maturity. I was 16 and six months pregnant.

My hands were trembling because I had to tell my parents something that would hurt them. I told them I was quitting track because I was getting fat and I was not fast anymore.  My parents were very suspicious about the whole thing. They didn’t understand why I wanted to quit.   They said, “People are talking about you and saying you’re pregnant.” My mom told me to not wear anything loose and to wear something kind of tight to show them I am not. All night I couldn’t sleep because I was wondering what I was going to wear for school. I woke up early that morning; I put a pink t-shirt on and some blue jeans on with sandals. While getting ready, I was practicing sucking in my stomach, trying to look skinny as I used to be. My mom kept looking at me, trying to figure this whole situation. I started to put a sweater on when my mom yelled at me to take it off. It was 80 degrees outside, but I didn’t care. I hid my sweater in my back pack. When my mom wasn’t looking, I was going to put it on when I got to school.

                I got to school and ran to the bathroom. I had five minutes before I had to go to class. I put on my black sweater; it said Hermiston Track and Field with Delgado on the back. I put a pink head band on thinking I was skinny and beautiful, as if no one knew something was growing inside of me. The bell rang and I had to go to math. I had a feeling inside, and I couldn’t explain it. I knew something was going to happen, but I didn’t know what. One hour and fifteen minutes passed by and then I was off to chemistry class. I was in class for about ten minutes when my teacher got a note saying, “Cristal Delgado needs to go to the office Principal Mike Kay needs to speak to her.” My heart sank down to my stomach as if I did something wrong. I had to no clue what I had done except that one thing. I didn’t take my back pack. I just walked down to the office and saw a blue truck outside the office and knew it was my parents. The lady in the office said I had been checked out and I was going home; I had a doctor’s appointment.  I ran outside, not realizing I still had my sweater on. I told my parents I had a huge test in class and had to go back. They didn’t care; they made me get in the truck. I opened the door having to hold to the edge of the driver’s seat, because I was too big to get in alone; I was six months along.

                Sitting in the car with my parents was scary. My mom was crying and my dad wouldn’t talk. Then, as we were getting close to the doctor’s office, my dad started slowing down and turned around and asked if I was pregnant.  I started to cry and say, no. I was just fat. My mom would plead, “Please I don’t need you to lie anymore we know. Just tell me the truth.” We parked and started walking towards the doctor’s office. That is when I lost my control and said, “I am pregnant, don’t let me go to the doctors.” My parents didn’t care that I didn’t want to go in.  The wait was about one hour until the doctor could see us. We left and my parents bought me lunch because I looked sick. We got Burger King. The smell of the Whopper Jr was disgusting. I made myself eat because that was only way I could not talk to my parents. Forty minutes into the hour, we went back to the doctor’s office. We sat in the waiting room where kids were crying, elders were sick, and I was crying in the corner while my parents just sat there looking at their feet, embarrassed.

 We sat down in the waiting room with all these people who I assumed were staring at me. “Cristal Delgado,” the nurse called. I couldn’t get up; my feet seemed not to let me go. Finally, after five minutes I got up and walked slowly towards her with my parents following behind. I sat in the chair in the office with my parents standing. She asked why we were in. My dad said, “We think she is pregnant.” She said, “Okay, take this cup go to the bathroom, and go pee in it” As I walked out of the room, I kept staring at the cup as if it was my enemy. I did what the nurse asked and went back in the room with my parents. Dr. Ogysby came in and said, “Cristal, you are pregnant.”Three words that changes a person’s life forever. He then told us a story about his daughter who got pregnant around my age, 16. He was known in his town and his daughter was a good girl. He was disappointed at first, but knew she needed his support. My dad said, “I am not leaving her, but I need to soak this up.”

Dr. Ogysby had to check the baby’s heart beat and see how far I was along. I knew I was pretty far in this pregnancy, but I acted as if nothing existed. He then asked if I wanted my parents in the room. I asked, “If my dad could leave because I can’t handle seeing the look on his face, as if he didn’t know who I was or what was happening.”           

              My dad left. The doctor slowly lifted up my shirt, my mom with her mouth wide open. She couldn’t believe what she saw. I looked at my belly surprised how big it grew from one day. The doctor put some cold gel on my stomach that made my stomach move awkwardly. He had a round stick object with silver metal type thing glued to the bottom, like a metal detector, to detect a baby.  Bump boom bump boom: the heart beat. I couldn’t believe it. It was not possible; I was a runner and a good person. I put my forearm over my eyes and started to cry, and then I felt a wet hand grab mine. I knew my mother was crying and the feeling when she held my hand was so warm and loving. She told me that it was my baby, but she spoke in Spanish. She usually spoke in English, but right then nothing mattered. 

The doctor called my dad in. He explained that I was about six months. My father cried, cried in front of the doctor. My father is a man who is very strong, a strong wrestler type who is always telling me to stop crying, don’t be a baby.  He has always also been my coach in sports and in life. This was not my coach, but my father. The doctor gave me things I needed to do and let us go.  The drive home was quiet; I could hear my mom’s stomach growling because she was hungry. I could hear both of them whisper things to themselves, as if calming themselves down. We got home, and my brother and sister were home. They were in middle school at the time. I then looked at my sister and cried.

              We had a family meeting to talk about my situation.  My brother, thirteen at the time, was so surprised and couldn’t believe it.  He ran off to his room. My sister was sad, but she told my parents one thing I’ll never forget, “Please, mom and dad, don’t let anything bad happen to Cristal or let anyone make fun of her.” My brother then came back; he had been crying and didn’t want me to know. We all agreed that we will always be there for one another. We will learn from it all and promise to support each other. Somehow, from one minute to another, our family became stronger than ever. It’s because we knew nothing would stop us from being a family and from moving on.

            My parents were going to get together with my boyfriend’s family later on that night.  I didn’t know what was going to happen. My parents left and my brother and sister and I talked about my new life. We talked about my goals in life, which were school, running, and my child. My brother, a runner too, said he was going to train me in track to the fullest because he didn’t want to see me fail. My sister offered to do my hair if I was ever tired in the morning.  My brother and sister wanted me to be happy.

              My parents came home and my mom was crying. I knew it hadn’t gone very well. My boyfriend’s parents wanted me to give my child up for adoption. I started to cry. I knew I couldn’t go through this situation and give my child up. My parents told me that there was no possible way I was going to do that, because I was a strong person and I could do it. They then tucked me in bed. Then, out of nowhere, five people were all sleeping on one queen size bed. My mother’s hand was on my stomach as if including my child who was inside of me.

              The experience I went through seemed impossible to get through at the time. I lied for months, I cried myself to sleep, but when my parents finally found out, I was happy because they supported me. Yet after when they did find out, I had other rough times, like confronting other people in high school: teachers, friends; but family is what makes people stronger. My family is everything to me. They have helped me through it all. My sister, who was twelve at the time, who I love to death, has been there in the middle of the night when I had to wake up to make Caden a bottle and Caden would be crying. My sister would wake up and carry him for me. My brother would watch Caden while I took at least a thirty minute nap to re -energize. Some people don’t have the support I have, but that does not mean they should give up.

              I told my parents that I was pregnant on September 27, 2007; I was almost six months pregnant. I had my child November 24, 2007, a boy named Caden Eli Lloyd. A month in a half after, I started to run and go to school plus I started looking at colleges. Caden was in the HeadStart program while I went to school. I was on the cross country and track team in high school, I had good grades, and I strived for college, for my son’s future and as well as for mine.  It’s been two in a half years later and I now go to Eastern Oregon University,  am on the cross country and track, team and live on my own with my son. I never put down school. I have my five years of college planned out plus the more ahead.  I knew what I wanted to do because I used the resources I had near me. I had counselors, teachers, the HeadStart program, my parents and myself and my son as inspiration.  Just because things happen in life that seem to slow us down doesn’t mean we can’t get through it. It just means we created a different path, but it will always be worth it all in the end, if we strive for better in life.