Raina Padilla, A senior at Ripon High school,  will be graduating with her class as a teen mom. Unlike everyone else, she has a baby this year, but that does not make her any different from her classmates.

On April 24, 2018, Sofia Dorothy Rose Acosta was born, she weighed 7lbs, and10oz.

Like her peers, Padilla likes to practice makeup, play video games, spend time with her friends, and watch Netflix, but now since she has a baby she is not allowed to do much of those things. Having a child takes a lot of responsibility and a lot of courage, especially as a teen mom, to keep going and not give up.

There are certain situations that happen in life that get the better of us. When asking Raina when she realized she was first pregnant she said, “I first found out I was pregnant a couple weeks into the school year. About a week after school started I got really sick to the point where I couldn’t eat anything and got too weak to even get out of bed. At first, I just assumed I caught the flu but after a week of being so sick, my mom finally asked if I was pregnant. I told her I didn’t know. So the next day, my mom drove my boyfriend and me to a relative’s house and had me take a test there. It took a while because I was so dehydrated, but it came out positive.”

When finding out she was pregnant she describes it as, “Such a blur, I thought ‘my parents are going to kill me’. My pregnancy was not planned,”

After considering all of her options she realized that having a baby would affect her entire life drastically, but ended up deciding to keep her, and so glad that she did.

As a parent, you nuture your child all the way to adulthood to finally let them go. Raina said, “My parents were in shock for the first few months, but eventually became excited to be grandparents. My brother and sister were pretty excited to have a neice right off the bat. My extended family and my boyfriend’s family were really supportive and loving as well.”

Raina, is a person people would describe as strong and has a lot of courage. She shares, “I started off the school year with a big group of friends, but most left almost soon as they found out I was pregnant, I’m still on good terms with those people, but I was hurt that it seemed like they wanted nothing to do with me. I’ve had two great friends that supported me and helped me out whenever I needed, I’m so thankful I have them.”

Raina describes, “Being a teen mom is stressful and it’s a pretty big struggle, but it’s also amazing. Losing so much sleep is one of the hardest things. It’s also been pretty difficult trying to maintain friendships because it feels like despite growing up with most of the people I know, I can’t relate to my friends like I used to. For example, instead of being stressed about finals week or writing essays, I’m stressing about whether or not my baby spitting up so much is normal or filling out paperwork for her correctly. I’ve had to force myself to overcome my anxiety as well, which was a pretty big thing for me. I’ve spent most of my life in a shell, basically only speaking when spoken to, but now I have to make tons of phone calls and put my foot down on certain things. But it’s all worth it because it’s for Sofia. Being a mom has changed me a lot, and I’m really glad that these changes are for the better.”

Pedilla plans on continuing her education at Modesto Junior College, taking general classes while she figures out exactly what to do. She does, “Hope to further my education as much as I can.”

Being a teen mom takes a lot of strength , She says, “I’ve always felt like I’m pretty mature emotionally, and becoming a mom has definitely challenged that thought. But I would say that despite being so young, I was and am ready to be a mom!