You navigate what is in front of you

I had my first child when I was sixteen.

When I think about it now it seems crazy. At the time it was just me. I didn’t know what being twenty-one would even look like. All I knew was that I was sixteen, and a father, and had to navigate that. I was in college, yes, at sixteen, and at the top of my class.

When my son was three and a half months old, I got custody. His mother didn’t have the support I did. She couldn’t handle the responsibility, so she gave him to me.

That is the other half of this lesson. My mother was supportive, and so was my stepfather. I am not sure what would have happened without them. I navigated what was in front of me, and I was able to because somebody was standing behind me.