Two little lines: Despite all advice, being pregnant in college is a struggle. I urge all young people to finish education.

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Heidi Sharp, 22, is a part-time Delta College student and part-time barista. She married her high school sweetheart, Wesley, in 2012. The same year, the couple purchased their first home in Stockton. Now, thanks to two little lines on a pregnancy test, the Sharps are expanding in July.

Now, given this is our last issue of the semester, I am comfortable getting a little preachy.

If you don’t like it, don’t read the column.

Through the semester I have covered a number of issues, and given what I believe to be helpful tips to surviving Delta College with a bun in the oven.

But when it comes right down to it, I don’t recommend it to any woman.

I am so fortunate that my circumstances in life have allowed me the opportunity to get my education and have my child. I am also fortunate enough that I am finally finished and will have my precious little girl a month after my graduation. But many women are not as fortunate.

I implore every girl, woman, and teen, (and young men as well!) to finish their education before starting a family.

Having an education these days is more important than anything else in the world. And while I will only have an Associates degree that AA is something no one can ever take from me, something to put on a resume and something to be proud of.

The struggles I have gone through this semester are nothing compared to what a college woman with a newborn could go through.

With competition for jobs steep, and unemployment in California still too high, that extra degree, even as small as an AA or AS, could put you just that much ahead of the high school graduate.  It could be enough to give you that job, instead of the person with no education.

Degrees are increasingly being dismissed as “useless.” But while my AA in Social and Behavioral Sciences won’t get me a job as a psychologist, it shows dedication.

A degree, no matter how small, shows that you stuck with something for a decent length of time, (in my case, four years).  That education received here, no matter what the “stigma” of Delta College says, has made every graduate a more well-rounded individual.

When my darling little girl grows into a teen, I can tell her that I finished what I started in college.  I can tell her that I earned a degree and I am proud of it. I can honestly preach to her that college was a good experience and that she needs to go.

Hopefully it will inspire her to go.

Hopefully it will inspire her to not follow in my footsteps and become pregnant while still in college.

Hopefully she will be 100 times more successful than her parents will.

Earn your degree before bringing a little blessing into your life ladies and gents; it’s well worth it.