"If you do that, I will disown you. You will be put out on the street with nothing, and you will have no one. You'll starve. You'll be raped. You won't survive a week without me."

My Nmom said this to me eleven years ago when I got pregnant as a 16-year-old junior in high school with a 3.9 GPA and early acceptance to the college of my dreams. I was considering placing the baby for adoption in order to pursue the opportunities I had earned, and this was her response to that idea.