I wasn’t prepared for what Catherine was about to tell me.
“I’m going to try to get pregnant next week,” she blurted out without any context.
Catherine just turned 19 years old. She still lives at home with a controlling mother. Her father killed himself when she was young. She doesn’t yet know how to drive and has to beg for rides to and from a menial job. She’s never had any romantic relationships, but she’s recently started slipping away from home to meet men for sex.
Just last week, she told me about how one such man — who she met online — picked her up and took her to a camper about an hour away from her. (She told her mother she was at a friend’s house.) They had sex for a couple of days, then he abruptly brought her back home — and then he disappeared from her life.
Now, she’s met another man online and she plans to meet him Sunday night. She’s never seen him in real life, but she’s planning to make sure he gets her pregnant. And she looked shocked when I told her that this plan was stupid and selfish.

NOTEBOOK: The forest is burning, so quit arguing about single trees
Loss of respect for truth leads to remorseless liar’s excuses
My political lens makes me think you’re crazy — and vice versa
Romantic love is part obsession, part reality — and part madness
Be afraid, friends: Chicken Little says the sky is falling somewhere
‘Thanks for sharing your process’ is wiser than responding in anger
FRIDAY FUNNIES
Hearing what your gut whispers might save you from wrong path