- For most people, at 15, base challenge
is learning how to drive.
For me, it was learning to be a father.
When my girlfriend told me she was pregnant,
first thing that came to my mind was,
man, I can't be the father.
I'm gonna ruin this kid's life.
And honestly, we never really had like a conversation
about safe sex or anything like that.
At 15, I was just too shy to be the one to bring it up.
And when she told me she was pregnant,
she didn't know how far along she was.
She was already starting to show a little.
A couple weeks later,
I looked at my phone and I see I have a voicemail.
It's from my girlfriend.
Hey Andrew, it's me.
I'm at the hospital.
And I just gave birth to my daughter.
And so fatherhood was not off to a good start.
My worst fear was being an awful dad
and having missed the birth
of my daughter just kinda put me on that track.
So they get discharged
from the hospital a couple days later,
and I ask a friend to give me a ride there
so I can see my daughter for the first time.
And when I did see her,
I mean, she's just like
the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.
And I just have so much pride inside, because she's mine.
Trying to be a father
when the only time you can see your daughter
is when people can give you a ride definitely wasn't enough.
I learned at an early age
that I really didn't have a lot to offer my daughter,
and I realized that the best
that I could ever offer her was myself.
And until I could offer her more,
I was just gonna give her all of me.
I wish I could tell you the story has a fairytale ending,
but things didn't work out between me and my girlfriend,
but I have a great relationship with my daughter.
She's 16 now, and we're very close.
I mean, she's my best friend.
And today, I can absolutely offer her more.
I'm a dentist and I just really try
and give her all the things I never could.
Before coming here today,
I asked her if she was okay with me sharing my story,
because really, it's part of her story too,
and not only was she okay with it,
she got super excited
when she found out Planned Parenthood was involved.
And she started telling me how much
she supports Planned Parenthood,
and really just made me proud.
I support Planned Parenthood
because it provides healthcare access to many women,
a service I'd like to be available
to my daughter if she ever needed it.
It seemed like when it came down to having the talk,
she was already prepared.
She told me just how scared she was of having a kid early,
just because seeing everything,
me and her mom have had to go through.
We have such an open conversation
that I'm not really worried.
My biggest worry right now
is just making sure she's a good driver.