Hey! It's gonna happen people..you can't stop it.

Sex discussions weren’t avoided in my family; my mother just never thought I was old enough to talk about it. Honestly, she still gets uncomfortable with me in the room if there is a sex scene in the movie we are watching, even though I am 18. My mother, being the one who was supposed to talk me through the whole “menstruation/girlhood” chapter of my life, seemed to forget or ignore that I was growing up. The school did too.

But I didn’t sit back and whine about not being informed about my body and the changes I was going through. I researched it. I read books for teens my age about becoming a woman and they took me through the steps of what was happening to me. I even learned about guys and their changes. I read papers and stories and I even read the directions given in the tampon box. I didn’t wait for someone else to inform me, I taught myself instead. I am not saying I am an expert on the subject or anything, but when something happens that I don’t understand I know there are a million or more places where I can find out what it is.

My first “sex ed” class was my freshman year. I remember being surprised that their whole reason for coming was to convince us not to have sex, rather than tell us how to be safe and not get pregnant as well. They used the scare tactic that is supposed to make you afraid of everything that could happen. While I am aware, and was then, that all of this could happen, I was still curious. Everyone was curious.

So, by telling us all the bad things that come from sex, they left out the information that we actually needed. They skipped the entire section on condoms and birth control and went straight to “Don’t have sex until you get married and if you have already had it, its ok, you can be a virgin again by signing this card!” Honestly! Tell a kid they can’t do something and you will see how effective that is. Try telling them every gross or exciting detail about it, tell them how to protect themselves from the bad and how to handle the situation, and then let them decide for themselves.