by: Emma Smith
Everyone knows it is not a good idea for teenagers to have children, but in one specific case things managed to turn out right.
Jerome Smith is a 16-year-old junior at Roosevelt High School in Portland, tailback on the varsity football team, and the father of a beautiful two-year-old girl named Anajah.
Jerome is a true rarity with a saint-like personality. As soon as Anajah's mother, Emilia, told Jerome she was pregnant, he had no doubts that he wanted to keep Anajah and be a key aspect in her life. Just about everything Jerome does now is for the benefit of Anajah. He attends school regularly and works on graduating (as Anahaj's Early Head Start program depends on it.) Jerome attends every parenting class offered to him, even if it means having to miss football practice.
Durring the rest of football season Anajah is usually looked after by her mother and grandmother, Erika. Football is about the only thing Jerome gets to do for himself. He was forced to grow up faster than most teenagers and football is that piece of youth that he hangs onto.
Jerome and Anajah are now living in one of the two bedrooms in Jerome's gandmother's two bedroom apartment. Jerome wishes to attend college, very possibly to extend his talent as a fashion designer, but Jerome says he will not go without Anajah because his life is no longer about himself, it's about her.
Is it a good idea to get pregnant at 14? No, but it needs to be said that if such a thing does occur, I wish that more people could take on the responsibility as Jerome took on Anajah.
