HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Susanna Maddrigal, founder of the marketing company MADD Media, is sharing her story about motherhood.
Susanna was recently featured on the TODAY show with Hoda and Jenna, following her Huffington Post article, which highlighted why she did not want to become a mother.
“Coming from the Valley, and especially in a Latino community, the formula that is often fed to us is happiness comes when you follow this pattern; you graduate, you get married, you have children and you have insta-happy,” she said. “And there is no insta-happy when it comes to having children.”
Maddrigal specializes in mass marketing and has lived all over the country, but life brought her back home to the Rio Grande Valley.
“I really didn’t think I was going to stay here, but I love it here,” Maddrigal said. “I love the sense of community.”
Children were never a part of Susanna’s plans. In her article, she wrote “the idea of being responsible for someone else, and possibly ruining their life was terrifying.”
She became pregnant early into her first marriage but lost the child and doctors said she’d likely never be able to conceive.
“I remember feeling so relieved thinking oh great, I don’t have to take birth control pills anymore,” she said. “I don’t ever have to worry about messing up somebody else’s life like this is fantastic.”
But one month later, Susanna was pregnant again. This time, it was different, she was different.
“When she came into my life, I didn’t realize that I even had icicles around my heart. But it’s what it felt like,” she said. “I felt her melting the icicles away from me.”
Susanna and her daughter, Annalisa, share an unbreakable bond.
“I’ve learned so much from her and I’ve grown so much as a person,” she said. “I learned things about myself that I would have never been able to explore had I not had her.”
After getting divorced, Susanna moved back to the RGV and started a marketing agency – MADD Media. while she focuses on her career, Susanna says, her daughter changed how she sees the world.
“For me personally, just trying to be better than I was yesterday and not giving up. That is a success to me.”
In a culture where women are taught to pursue marriage and family from a young age Susanna says, it’s okay to put your dreams first.
“Everybody has a different journey and I think whether you want to have children or not, that should be everybody’s individual choice,” Maddrigal said. “But I think something we should be stressing, especially to our girls, is that happiness comes from within.”
