"Keep your skirt down..."

The title is dedicated to my late maternal grandma who often gave me such great advice. The first piece of advice that I remember was that gem where she told me to, "Keep [my] skirt down and [my] panties up."

Priceless.

When I entered my teens, there was much paranoia about me getting pregnant. Teenage pregnancy was an epidemic in my neighborhood, so my grandmother and mother wanted to make sure that I didn't fall into that trap. Dating an 18-year-old boy when I was 15 didn't calm their fears. Which set off alarms in my mom's head.

Mama thought that "An 18-year-old boy only has one thing on his mind."

Lord, was she right. I remember that time I stormed out of his house because he was pressuring me too much. He was constantly trying to de-flower me and I was getting sick of his begging. That day he followed me all the way home, trailing behind me with the sorriest look on his face. Begging me to come back to his house. He didn't see what the big deal was. How come I just couldn't do it?

My mother didn't have a thing to worry about. That 18-year-old boy tried every trick in the book to get in my pants. For the entire 3 years that we dated. But I had a force field around my drawers, so even the most powerful smooth talker couldn't break through.

Besides I hated children back then. To have my very own PERSON running around calling ME "Mommy" was something that I didn't want. Birth control came in the form of me seeing what happened to the lives of my friends who had children as early as 15 or 16 years old. HIGHLY effective because I didn't want that for myself. Didn't like the fact that I wouldn't be able to do what I wanted because of some kid.

AND if I ever got pregnant, I'd have to deal with the disappointing stares from my friends, The Nerd Crew. At that age, that was FAR worse than any lashing I could have received from my mother. It was well understood that we were all going to college. So there was no room for some kid in The Crew.

They would have deemed me unworthy of the scientific calculator that the Math Gods had so mercifully bestowed upon me.