Just before Christmas break, I had a student health appointment I had made at the very beginning of the semester to see about contraceptives. It was too late; I was pregnant. My mother found out when I had a melt down at home and immediately made arrangements for me to go to her cousin’s family in New York which was the only place where abortion was legal. She had had almost no contact with these relatives, but she came through as did they. My life would have been completely different, and I don’t think I would have graduated from college without this abortion. I would not have gone to Japan to teach English, which, skipping a few steps, would mean that my brother would not have married a Japanese woman, and I would not have my niece and nephew.