Playing Poker and Losing More Than Your Money (Safe Sex, and the dangers of not having it)

    Now, I don't know who all reads this blog, how old you are, or how naive you can be when it comes to sex. So, fair warning, this one might not be your cup of tea. Although I want everyone to read this, I do not want to offend or insult anyone or their intelligence. Ok, now that your not plotting on finding me in a dark alley, let's move on.

     If you have religious reasons (or any other reason for that matter) for not using condoms or birth control, that's fine, it's America and you have the right. But, you should be extra careful, because even though you might not have something, not only do people lie, but a large portion of people that have a sexually transmitted disease, don't even know they do.

     There is a staggering amount of teens that are getting pregnant and infected with STDs. Most people over the age of 25 don't even think about this unless they have a kid of their own, or they see an extremely young mother with her baby in Walmart. You occasionally hear about it on tv, and even then, it's either not the actual topic, or its soooo boring you immediately change the channel. The worst way we usually see it is on talk shows, where these people are being humiliated for the entertainment of others.

     We barely have a sex education in school, and in a lot of schools we have what they call 'abstinence only'. The fact that anything that has to do with the education of sex has the word 'only' in it, makes me cringe. Sex is still taboo to this day. We've loosened up a lot over the years, but not that damn much. People are scared of their kids having sex (and I understand this well, I have a son) and making a mistake that will follow them for the rest of their life. And as with most things we truly fear, we avoid it at all costs. This, in this instance, is a bad mistake. But, fear is irrational and its not surprising, it's not right, but its not surprising.

     The Health Department gives out free condoms, you can walk in, grab an envelope and walk out. You don't have to ask, they are in a little shelf on the wall by the door. There is no age limit, and no one knows your name. I bet I could pick out 10 random teens age 12-17 and at the very least, 5 of them would be getting new information by me telling them this. I say 12-17 not because I think its cool for that age to be having sex, but that is the age of puberty. We can teach young teens about sex without being crude, and without a stage performance (what's up with those anyway, am I right?).

     Just teach them, they aren't dumb, you only talk to them that way when you're uncomfortable with something. They instantly pick up on those vibes, and guess what, now sex is an awkward subject for them too! Do you remember your "birds and the bees" talk, or did you even get one? Did you learn from your friends and just kinda wing it? If you were one of the ones who were 'winging' it, I'm sure you understand how awkward and uncomfortable 'sexy' situations can be.

     So if you feel ashamed, weird, or uncomfortable when your getting ready to do the deed, do you think you'll talk about condoms when it comes down to 'nakey time'? Probably not, and if you do and there isn't one around, it's very possible you'll be like "fuck it", and do it anyway. This is sad. Not only are we uneducated, but we are ashamed of our sexuality, it has become something dirty. Because we have been scared, and uneducated, we haven't protected ourselves and sex can now be very deadly.

     A teen's self esteem is pretty fragile as it is anyway, to shame them for thoughts that are pretty mandatory, seem like torture to me. But if we arm them with knowledge and the tools to be safe, I bet they would surprise us with how responsible they could be. They might have sex, but they won't be bringing home a baby, or something that could kill or maim them.

     It's not just teens that don't practice safe sex either. Adults do this all the time. People get in their heads, that they can just have a quick once over look at their partner and visibly see diseases. Like I said earlier, some people that have diseases don't even know they have them, how could you know in 5 seconds in a dim room?

    We get older and our self esteem isn't much better, we've had kids and are not sporting that hot bod anymore, or gravity, stress, the sun, and various other abuses our bodies have endured, have made us (putting it nicely) less than camera ready when naked. So we are doing the same thing as the young adults as far as making deadly gambles with our naughty parts.

     I think it would be great for the school to teach sex ed, but you know what would be even greater, if we quit being embarrassed by sex, and teach them at home as well. Teens tend to learn more from each other as far as personal things go. If one or two well educated teens hung out with a large group of not so sex educated teens, I think that could go a pretty long way as well. Nobody wants to see a 15yr old girl with a baby, and we don't want to see another 15yr old boy with child support payments to make. Getting a good education while going through puberty is hard enough without a baby, child support, and a part time job. And it's even harder if your going to the hospital for treatments for a debilitating disease.

     Sex is always going to be around. Teens are always going to make bad decisions, and very few people end up marrying the person they lost their virginity to. If all it takes to keep my kid safe is to sit down and have a really uncomfortable talk, then toss him some condoms, then I'm totally cool with that. As adults, we should also be using condoms on a regular basis. No matter how old you are, disease is nothing to take lightly, and neither are babies.