You are my cousin. You were my hero. You were my role model. Now, you’re her husband. You are her dad. I’m not one to be so pitiful and jealous, but where has it paid off for me? Eleven years young. Thirteen years young. Fifteen years young. Sex. There should be no relation between those ages and that activity, but there is. Teens are more worried about having sex than their grades. Their reputations. Their lives. Sex before marriage. You hear lectures over it, and constant hearted conversations. I’m not judgmental about the topic. I won’t call you a whore, or hoe. I won’t refer to you as a weasel or out to “get some.” I just want to know why you can’t, or you won’t wait? Not having sex is what I’ve been raised to believe. “Sex before marriage is wrong,” and if sex isn’t wrong, sex isn’t right. Saving my virginity is a part of my morals, not necessarily a part of my religion, but it is at the same time. If you’re a Christian and you have sex, I won’t say you aren’t one because you do have sex. I personally think it’s wrong to have sexual interactions with someone you aren’t married to, or even in love with. Why not save having sex if actually having sex is even that special? Why rip that away from someone? You may say waiting is pointless because having sex will eventually happen, and you’re right about that. Having sex is bound to happen, but why not wait for that one person you fall in love with? You may say saving yourself is dumb, and you can call it what you want, but all of this is my opinion.
You’ll always hear that preachers’ kids are the worst. A part of me now believes that’s true. I was raised with a role model, forever and always a part of my family. My oldest cousin, Blake, and someone I looked up to my whole life. Someone I wanted to be just like when I grew up. If we weren’t building tents, we were riding four-wheelers. He was amazing. An amazing cousin. An amazing role model, with a bright, bright future. He’s a preacher’s son, so I always thought of him as someone to look up to. It may have been that I had him set so high upon a pedestal that I had really great expectations for him. As he got older, I realized that his priorities and interest changed from riding four-wheelers with his baby cousin, to girls. Two years ago I lost my role model. Not as in he passed, or died, but he lost his spot. Samantha, his daughter, was brought into the picture. Unmarried, not even dating this girl, and chooses to have sex with her. I’m not saying that Samantha ruined his life, per say, but she did ruin his plans. Not only were Blake and Kristen, his partner, being irresponsible about the situation, but they weren’t really thinking about Samantha. Was she going to have a good life, or not? Was she going to be surrounded in a good environment? Both of their plans for their life were changed. I realize accidents happen, and you were just “having fun,” but accidents can be prevented. Samantha has brought life to our family and another person for me to love. Blake and Kristen are both play magnificent parts as parents. God has truly blessed them, her, and us. As we’re told, there are many blessings in disguise, and I’d say Samantha is just that, but this much more. Samantha is a life lesson in disguise. Telling me to hold onto my youth, and don’t grow up to fast. To not feel obligated to look down at a two year old and hear him, or her say “Mommy.”
Babies. Scares. Sexual transmitted diseases. Is sex really even worth all the
consequences? Why are most teenagers feeling sex is an obligation to have sex? It’s like they think having “it” is cool or something. Yeah, it must be really cool to have a car seat in your back seat. “What if I’m pregnant?” A question familiar to most teens, about as familiar as the back of their hand. The ages of 18-19 year olds have had the highest rate of teenage pregnancies. 15-17 year olds follow that. Instead of most girls wondering what they’ll do on the weekend, the teenage mother, the cool ones with babies, I mean, are having to worry about a baby sitter, or if they’ll have enough money to do this, or do that. The constant stress and hassle teenagers are facing because of scares through sex has sky rocketed. Which brings me to the dreaded, three initialed phrase. STDs’. Now how cool are you? How cool are you to walk around, flexing, and saying “I have syphilis.” No, not everyone that has sex receives this undesirable infection, but what if you were the one that did. Why would you want to be that one out of four girls that has an STD? How cool are you?

*Names were changed for privacy.