ON EARLY SEXUAL DEBUT

As youngsters who belong to the generation that is well-exposed to all kinds of media (what with the boon of technology) and who never fail to give adventure a room, whether it’s a spur-of-the-moment thing or a planned activity, often times in the middle of laughters, joys, and thrills we happen to get caught in the pool of our own emotions that we simply fell unconscious and submit willingly to our egos until we find ourselves clinging on the tentacles of temptation just as how we easily give in to our carnal instincts. It’s really just as hard as rock for us to weigh good from bad, safe from unsafe and ideal from not especially during critical times. Some just cannot resist the heat and only a few really can dodge it. Luckily (or by nature maybe), I belong to the cans.


Like any other young people, I sometimes do ask myself, “Why do we need to control when it meant depriving ourselves of the happiness it seeks?; why do we need to abstain (at least temporarily) when God once impelled, Go forth and Multiply!?; why still delay; why not just now?” All these questions recurrently tug at my mindstrings, but before the tide of ignorance would engulf me, I’ve already searched for their answers - creative incredulity actually.

Sexual debut as they call it shares a similitude with the proverbial apple fruit. The moment it comes to our thought, it never fails to stir up our curiosity and captivate our senses much like the fruit’s sweet redolence. It can be intoxicating sometimes that we do not notice in a while we’re already caught in its vicious circle that lead to nowhere but a world either of joy or suffering. It may even get us too preoccupied that we might be tempted to indulge untimely just as how we are tempted to pick the fruit up prematurely with its attractive light green color unwary of the fact that the taste could be the opposite of what we’ve expected to be. And if this happens, it could mean saying adieu to our precious days of zestful youth and cheerful innocence and opening doors to motherly/fatherly responsibilities and the brunt it entails – be it in the form of emotional, financial, or health problems. In this case, I can only imagine how poor as rat our country would be if (time comes that) four out of five Filipino teenagers are into premarital sex. Sure, it would be a schadenfreude moment or a scourge even for a country dominated by youngsters and which firmly puts it that the youth is its hope for a brighter tomorrow. What an irony could it be?

Blame it on the media! – the ever brutally influential Americanized Philippine media – some might feign, but did we come to think about that hey, it’s in the times and it would be anachronistic if we do act super conventionally like the times of our grandfathers to the 10th power. It’s a very arguable topic actually, but it’s the whole truth – change is inevitable whether it be negative or positive. Perhaps, what we should focus on with regards to these days’ overly sexualized society is proper education (values oriented education) especially to the youth - because these days, many young children are forced to the streets (where they might be exploited) because of lack of free education.

Clearly, with the proposed sexual education and all the emerging population control programs in our country nowadays, the problem of early sexual debut (eventually leading to early pregnancy and parenthood and population increase), still remains a social sickness that can outrightly be blown out into a social cancer if no suffice actions will be taken. Socio-civic, advocacy, and charity works might be the craze of non-government organizations lately but still they need to sustain a longer momentum to catch up. Many youngsters still remain irresolute (some even find an excuse in their financial status and the economy’s unstoppable surge) despite advertisements and strict campaigns. Not enough is the word probably; for you can never solve a sudoku puzzle with just eight numbers or dance a tango with just you alone. In short, it’s a concerted effort – it takes not just the NGOs, the government and the haves to act but also most especially the families which are always the first-hand purveyors of light in the often darkness-bound path of the youth.

Just as how God had put an endmark or limit to His every creations – as the sky is to the earth, the sea to the land, night is to day – definitely we can do the same with this problem for as long a we synergystically act together - learn to imbibe the virtue of self-disciplline, accept the fact that life is not that easy and learn to say LATER to early sexual debut in the face of NOW. Only then can we be confident in saying that the youth is the hope of the nation.