Spotting my parents in the thousands of faces in the auditorium, I discerned relief rather than pride in their eyes. I winced slightly but tossed my head around in defiance, listening to the strains of “Pomp and Circumstance” I caught a glance of Mrs. Hill, my English teacher. I clutched the coveted paper in my hand a little tighter and suppressed the urge to make a nasty gesture at the old bat. For the last couple of months she had berated me daily by scolding, “You’ll never graduate now that you went and married that boy!” I guess I showed her , I thought as my mind jumped to my secret. At that moment, I was glad for the fullness of the graduation gown even though I had not yet begun to show. If any of my teachers or the principal knew about the life that was growing inside me they would have denied me the diploma I had worked so hard to earn. Two weeks before graduation, my friend Barbara had been called out of class and expelled because the school nurse discovered her pregnancy.