Tracy didn't plan any of this. Leaving home, dropping out, coming home, her new husband, her new son. It all just happened, says Tracy. Among the 26 members of the Class of 2000 that the St. Paul Pioneer Press has been following since 1988, she is the first to have a baby. At 16 years old, though, Tracy doesn't have the perspective for fear or self-pity.
Life just happens.
But Tracy's passive approach to her future stiffens under her everyday circumstances. One in nine American girls between 15 and 19 become pregnant each year, according to Planned Parenthood, and Tracy is among the estimated 40,000 young mothers this past year who dropped out of school. Tracy doesn't think much about the life she knew a year ago. She'd like to go back to school. But Yer, who is 17, can't seem to find a job he likes or can keep, so Tracy must work.