Current Release: April 28th, 2009 | Vol. XXX Iss. 10

Photo Illustration By TJ Martin

Campus STDs

BY Chrsity Northam

ctnortham@vwc.edu

Sexual Intercourse: It happens. Since we all are attending college, we are all essentially grown-ups. We know that sex happens whether we believe it should or not. Sometimes it happens between couples who are madly in love, and sometimes it happens due to other circumstances. You could know the person really well, or you could wake up next to a complete stranger. Since we are all adults, though, we do realize that such incidents occur.

Now that we have established the occurrence of sexual intercourse, let us talk about sex s right hand man, STDs. On a small campus like Virginia Wesleyan, it is not hard to hear rumors or gossip about people you might be acquainted with. Recently, I have been hearing a lot of talk about certain scary encounters that students have had with STDs. Evidently, the cool thing to do is to go jump in bed with someone who has chlamydia. I am not saying that I believe every rumor that goes around this campus; however I have heard enough about STDs to last me for months. Therefore, I took the initiative to state my opinion and my concern.

I understand that things happen that are not under our control. Often, we suffer consequences that we may not deserve. I feel that in order to prevent these consequences from being more serious than necessary, we need to take the proper actions.

Condoms have been around for many years. You can find them anywhere, from convenient stores to our very own school nurse. These are so convenient to find in order for people to take the initiative and USE them. I really do not find that wrapping it up is really inconvenient. It takes about 5 seconds to slip it on and go about your business. However, if for some reason you can t possibly wrap it up, at least use judgment on the character of the person you are  interacting with. This judgment could be of the person s character or exactly how far you want to go.

This piece is not to scold those who have sexually transmitted diseases. It is merely a public service announcement to try and prevent more from spreading. I understand that a lot of times we do not even have knowledge of the other person s past sexual experiences and encounter STDs on an unfortunate basis. However, we are still putting our own lives on the line when we allow for this to happen.

STDs are something that cannot be taken lightly. Those who have them should not be shunned or treated differently. I am sure that they would back me up when I say that STDs are definitely life changing. We only have one body, one life. We should try and make both last as long as possible.