It was the worst day of her life, for sure! She had to run away somewhere, or pig out, or yell at the top of her lungs; she had to DO something to vent out the terrible horror she felt. She had just hung up the telephone after talking with her best friend Jessica. In a low, scared voice Jessica had said, “Shannon, I don’t even know how it happened but I’ve got HIV…you know…AIDS. I’m only seventeen but I’m afraid I’m going to die soon.” Jessica had begun to sob now.

“That’s a pretty sick joke,” Shannon had answered quickly.

“Gosh, I wish it was a joke,” Jessica answered, “but, OK, I was at the doctor’s today and he told me that I tested positive…”

“Your mom know?” Shannon interrupted.

“NO. Not yet,” Jessica whispered
 
Jessica and Shannon had been best friends since they started first grade together. Jessica had been MOSTLY going out with the same guy for two years. They had had sex together several times, but Jessica never worried. She thought that she was safe because he wore a condom MOST OF THE TIME.

Even if Dan had worn a condom all of the time, Jessica had been going out with him MOSTLY, which meant that she had, at some point had one or more other sexual partners. Having sex JUST ONCE with someone who may not care as much about you as a “steady” boyfriend or who, unlike Dan, did not use condoms, can be deadly.  It’s like putting five bullets in a gun that holds six bullets and pulling the trigger with the gun aimed at your head. It’s just plain stupid. Five chances out of six, you will end up dead! Like with Jessica, maybe you will suffer from a potentially deadly disease, AIDS, or be tragically harmed from some other sexually transmitted disease such as, Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Syphilis, etc.

Question: What’s the difference between REAL LIFE and a baseball game?
Answer: In a baseball game, you get three strikes before you’re out, in real life, you may only get one!

For those playing around with sex, just one unprotected time at bat and you could be OUT…OUT of any chance to escape an unwanted pregnancy and OUT OF LUCK in not getting a dangerous, often deadly STD (sexually transmitted disease such as Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Syphilis, etc.)

Teenagers are not the only ones who take foolish risks. Many much older people do too. Some think that they are too smart to get caught or that all those awful things that they hear and read about only happen to other people. Sound familiar? Just stop and think for a moment of all the dumb, unnecessary risks your friends or even your parents take if:

1. They get behind the wheel and drive after they have been drinking
2. Keep right on puffing their lives away when there is absolute medical proof that lung cancer, heart disease and many other serious illnesses are caused by smoking
3. Stuff their faces with all kinds of unhealthy high fat/calorie foods when everybody knows being seriously overweight is not only gross, it can be life threatening

If you drive after you have been drinking or get in the car with somebody who has, there is a chance that you may luck out and not become the victim of a car crash that time, but you may not get a second or third chance.

HAVING UNPROTECTED SEX IS A LOT DIFFERENT FROM THE DANGER OF DRINKING AND DRIVING, OR SMOKING BECAUSE WHEN YOU DON’T PRACTICE SAFE SEX, YOU MAY NOT GET A SECOND CHANCE.

UNPROTECTED SEX…EVEN JUST ONCE…WITH SOMEONE YOU’VE KNOWN FOR A LONG TIME, OR…SOMEONE YOU’VE JUST MET OFTEN DOESN’T GIVE YOU A SECOND CHANCE TO STAY SAFE OR HEALTHY…OR EVEN ALIVE!!!!

Whatever you do about being sexually active, don’t take the chance of trading off the short-term gain for the long-term pain. Don’t trade the pleasure of being popular or keeping a cute guy or girl dating you for the LONG TERM PAIN OF TAKING DUMB RISKS.