22 October 2009
Your Choice, Is the Right Choice
Full disclosure: I didn’t have sex until I was out of high school. I didn’t have sex until I was in college. Two years into college, even. I mean, I wasn’t a prude or anything, but I was raised that sex wasn’t something to be taken lightly, and I wanted to wait until I was ready to accept all the responsibilities that came with it.
I know that sounds weird and pretty abnormal, but it is actually pretty normal.
Are you in high school right now? Take a second to look around, half of the people you see won’t have sex until after they graduate. Nearly all of them will do that by choice, not because they can’t get any.
There are a couple of reasons for this. The first and most obvious is that sex is a big freaking deal. It is totally awesome, yes, but it is also incredibly dangerous. One mistake or bad decision can change the lives of two people forever. Disease and unwanted pregnancy are both very real results of having risky sex.
Thankfully, because of this there is a lot of education out there about safer sex practices. Private and government groups are all about getting the right information in your hands so you make the best choice about your sexual health. Sometimes, that choice is to wait, I know it was for me. And while we’re all about the safer sex here at SNAPOUT, there really isn’t anyway better way to full protect yourself than abstinence.
So let’s say you’ve decided to wait until you feel ready. That can be a choice that’s easier to tell yourself you’re going to stick to than it actually is. I know from personal experience that telling some one you’re not going to have sex right now can put a lot of stress on a relationship.
I was a senior in high school and I’d been dating this girl for a few months. It was the second semester and everyone was stressed about exams, graduation and if they were going to college. One night things went a little farther with the girl that I would have liked. I knew I wasn’t going to have sex, so I didn’t carry condoms with me. But suddenly, I was in a situation where I found that I was about to need a condom very badly. Thankfully, I was able to keep my head on my shoulders and I stopped things before they went too far. Which didn’t make the girl too happy. She started yelling at me, but I stuck with it, telling her that I just couldn’t do this now. There was too much at stake for me. What if she got pregnant? I’m in high school still, I haven’t even graduated yet! Finally, I told her that this was important to me, and if she cared about me, then she’d understand.
Well, she didn’t talk to me for a few days, but she finally did come around before the next week was over. Turns out that she was more embarrassed by the thought of me not wanting her than she was about anything else. But she understood how important waiting was for me, and she agreed that we were more important than that.
If you’re feeling the pressure to have sex, look around you. Half of those people are just like you. They are choosing to wait. And for all of those people, that’s the right choice, just like it might be for you.
[...] more here: If it’s Your Choice, It’s the Right Choice Published by cjoelprounding on Oct 22, 2009 under Internal Medicine | Post your comment now [...]