Mrs. Gwen Claycomb

Mrs. Claycomb helps two students with their work on the computer.

Mrs. Claycomb helps two students with their work on the computer.

The young girl laced her spikes, and grabbed her battered glove as she stepped on to the dirt field not knowing her softball career was soon coming to an end.
Gwen Claycomb, a teacher at Southmoreland, had a full ride scholarship for playing softball at Lehigh University. She thrived on the game she loved. Her sophomore year in college, life itself threw a curve ball at her as she saw the two lines appear on the pregnancy test.Her first thought was “Okay, I can do this.”
“My greatest obstacle in life was having my first child in college,” said Claycomb. “Although, my greatest obstacle turned into my greatest blessing.”
Claycomb went from playing softball and attending Lehigh to become an engineer, to being responsible for another life.
“Being a parent is a twenty-four seven job,” said Claycomb. “There is no way around it.”
After Claycomb got pregnant to her boyfriend, she moved back closer to home and attended California University of Pennsylvania.
Having a baby at such a young age made her work harder to finish school and achieve her dreams. Just getting through school in general with very little sleep, feeding every hour, getting her school work done, and still being a nice person was a difficult, but she made it happen.
Her parents were very supportive, although at first her Father was very upset she had to stop playing softball, but she just had to roll with the punches and make the best of it.
“I do believe everything happens for a reason,” said Claycomb. “And I wouldn’t change a thing.”
No doubt every parent gets stressed out, but being young made the job more challenging for Claycomb. A lot of people were judgmental; they looked at her and knew she was a young parent.
Some people treated her as if she didn’t know what she was doing, but when it was all said and done she was doing the best she could with what she had; hoping she was making all the right decisions.
“I watched baby stories on TLC every day, I read every book and every magazine that I could about parenting,” said Claycomb. “I also had a child psychology class, but the thing is no matter how much you read, until you’re actually in the depths of ‘I’m a mom now,’ you have no idea.”
When Claycomb left the hospital and went home she remembers thinking “Oh gosh, we’re on our own.”
“I just accepted the fact that that was my life and I just dealt with what I was given,” said Claycomb. “It was good, it wasn’t bad. There are no great words of wisdom you just own up to everything you do and move on, and make it work.”
After becoming a Mother she switched gears into teaching and helping kids, leading her to teaching at Southmoreland High school.
Soon after she graduated college she married her boyfriend, Jason, who was a year ahead of her. They have been together since junior year in High School; they had two more children later on in their life.
“You’re going to come across things no matter how old you are,” said Claycomb. “And I’m sure I have a ton of more stuff I’m going to come across, this was just something I struggled with initially. You just have to keep your head up because you never know what life is going to throw at you, you just have to be able to roll with the punches.”

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