Traverse City Record-Eagle

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December 1, 2009

Choices now affect future

Make sure you check out all the options

By Zeth Wheelock

Editor's Note: Students in Jennifer Stairs' English/Language Arts class at the TBAISD Career-Tech Center in Traverse City wrote essays around the theme of World AIDS Day, which is being marked today.

So you're in high school and you are convinced that your significant other is "the one." You both think that it's about time to take your relationship to the next level. STOP! The decision that you are about to make will affect you for the rest of your life.

Weigh the effects of each choice and pick one. Allow me to help you make the right one.

Option A: If you choose to have sex with someone, I wish you the best and keep your fingers crossed; you never know what could happen. You could contract any number of STDs such as chlamydia, genital herpes, genital warts, gonorrhea, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, syphilis or HIV/AIDS. You might even be responsible for the birth of child, and if you're in high school, I highly doubt that you are prepared for that.

Oh, and don't forget about your parents; you have to tell them, too. Imagine how disappointed they would be. They intended on watching you grow up to be something great, and everything previously noted will hold you back from your potential, especially having a child so young.

Good luck trying to graduate high school while taking care of a baby, and don't even think about college. If this doesn't sound like the kind of path you want to take, maybe Option B will suit you better.

Option B: If you do have sex, always use protection. Be sure that you take all the right precautions and remember nothing is ever 100 percent foolproof. Be sure to always use condoms, even if birth control is a factor.

If you are sexually active, you should get tested for STDs even if you don't think you have anything. Most STDs spread when the people that have them don't even know it.

Also key in the prevention of STDs is education. If you look at the places where there are STD epidemics, they are mostly third world countries where education is very scarce. Nobody wants to contract a disease, so if people are informed on how these diseases are transmitted, they probably will stay away from those actions.

Option C: If you choose not to have sex, the future is looking a little bit brighter -- no STDs or babies to worry about. High school will be much more tolerable. College is always an option.

If you choose not to have sex, you will find a person that you want to spend the rest of your life with and you can look them in the eyes and tell them, "I saved myself for you." Hopefully, they will reply in a similar fashion and the sacred bond of marriage will be even more concrete with the sacred act of sex.

That might sound like a fairy tale to some people but dreams can come true, and if you make the right decisions, they will.

It's a Friday night and you're hanging with your significant other and things start to get hot and heavy. You have to make a decision.

Choose the wrong one, and you could be headed down a very rocky and unpleasant road. Choose the right one, and you have taken the higher road to a brighter, sure future.

Zeth Wheelock is a junior at the TBA Career-Tech Center.

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