Congratulations to Cathy Schreiber and Melissa Schnefke, the winners of our latest essay contest!
Pictured Above: Winner Melissa Schnefke with Educator Jillian Burns
ReL8 also wishes to congratulate the contest runners-up: Jordan from Fairfield, Hannah from Coulterville, Teron from Belleville and Allison from Coulterville. Your t-shirts are in the mail!
We had so many great entries to this contest. Thanks to all who participated!
Cathy and Melissa won iPod Shuffles for their great entries. Read their winning essays below.
How can choosing abstinence help you reach your goals for the future?
Cathy said:
Do you have dreams of going to college, getting a good job, making lots of money, and having a family? If you have sex and get pregnant or get a sexually transmitted disease what will happen to all of your dreams? Are you ready to risk it all just so you won’t be called “the virgin” anymore? Practicing abstinence is a good way to make sure that you can reach your goals and dreams.
Some kids think that if they have sex that there will be no harm. Obviously these kids don’t have a proper teaching about the side effects. If you practice abstinence then your life will be much easier in many ways. If you go to a party where there is drinking, it will be much easier to say no and leave. When someone asks you to smoke a cigarette or do drugs you will be able to refuse and get away. Practicing abstinence will help you fulfill your dreams.
Sex is a horrible way to end your life and it has happened to some people. When you have sex there is a possibility that you could get a sexually transmitted disease. Another possibility is pregnancy. Pregnant teens don’t get to do things that normal teens do such as prom, college, or hanging out with friends. When you practice abstinence you are practicing the ability to say no and walk away. Saying no could save your goals and dreams from disaster or failure.
Do you want to live up to your dreams? Then practice abstinence and the ability to say no. Don’t risk it all just for fun. Live your teen years safe and unharmed from the consequences of sex, alcohol, and drugs. Live YOUR life and be yourself.
Melissa said:
There are so many ways how choosing abstinence can help you reach your goals for the future. Abstinence is so much more than just preventing STD’s and pregnancy. It is what can shape your future. Choosing whether or not to have abstinence is the most important and impacting decision a boy or girl could ever make.
Someone who has decided to stick to abstinence will most likely have a successful future ahead of them. They saw how they wanted to save themselves for the one that they would spend the rest of their lives with. They saw the importance of not giving themselves away. It was a good decision, because why would you want to waste your time with someone who you will most likely never see again once you get out of high school?
My goals personally are to go to college and get a good degree, get married some day and have a successful marriage, and have healthy children. If someone started messing around now, they could get an STD, get pregnant, and be left with physical, emotional, and social scars. Any of these things would not be very helpful in reaching goals. Everyone has goals and wants to have a successful future. But if you choose to be sexually active, it will leave scars that you may not realize now. Chances are you won’t even be with that person someday. Then you have given yourself away and lost your virginity that you cannot get back. Maybe someone is sexually active and does not get an STD or pregnant. But you still have to live with giving a piece of yourself to someone.
To reach your goals in the quickest and easiest way, you want to avoid any detours. By choosing abstinence you are assuring yourself that you will not have any detours involving your sexual life, which is one of the most distracting detours. Abstinence will help you reach your goals. You won’t have to worry about being pregnant or having an STD, and you won’t have to worry about all of those other things. You can focus more on schoolwork, and it won’t take up and waste your time. By choosing abstinence, you have automatically assured your married life to be all the more stronger and better. That helps reach your goals of a strong thriving marriage someday. If someone was sexually active, they run the risk of getting an STD, and there have been so many stories where people get one and cannot have children someday. I am sure that they really regret the choice they made now.
There have been numerous stories where people are sexually active before marriage and regret it a lot later. And in most of those cases the person ends up leaving them. They wish they would have just waited for their true love. Your goals depend on this choice. Why wouldn’t you want to save one of the best things for the person of your life?
April 2008 - A student from Mt. Vernon High School shared with us her courage in changing her life and making a pledge to abstinence. Please take a moment to read her winning essay for the "Take A Stand" contest. You'll see that it's never too late to start over!
How did you take a stand? : Well first off I would like to say that the young women who came to teach our class came in a very crucial time for me. See that past weekend I had broken up with my boyfriend. My friends had been urging me to end our relationship which almost tore me apart from the people who actually cared about me. My friends know that I have problems being a leader and saying no to opportunities I should pass up. I have finally stopped drinking alcohol and trying to get high of what ever I could. After having to get my stomach pumped I realized that life shouldn't be that way, and I was playing a game with my life that couldn't end well. I decided to come clean and stop all my negative behaviors, drugs, sex, and alcohol. I was clean for a very long time, but then I met him. My ex-boyfriend and I dated for a reasonable amount of time, and I felt that he was just amazing and I loved everything he did, at first. Later in the relationship I found out that he changed his ways, or stopped hiding them from me. He lied to me about his drug and alcohol use which didn't surprise me because I had gotten some really disturbing phone calls late at night from him several times and he got me started on my past problems, I felt like a failure. But I would do anything for him, and this is where I related to the lady who came to teach us about our decisions. She told a story like the situation I just got out of. Anyways one day my boyfriend had decided to pressure me into moving our relationship the 'next level' as he called it. I had already discussed this with him, I had told him before I was pressured into having sex. I told him that I was not going to do it again, and my decision was final. He seemed fine with that answer for a while. That time didn't last very long. He almost did everything to get me to have sexual intercourse with him. The weekend before I meet our Rel8 teacher was a very terrifying weekend for me. Friday he told his buddies that we had sex and somehow the whole school knew about it. Sense that was a false statement, I learned to ignore the looks I was getting in the hallways, but it still upset me. Saturday he was tired of asking I guess and decided to take matters into his own hands. He was done with me saying no, and tried to be cute about it when I caught him in the act of forcing me to do things again. I am not a strong person and I have tried and worked on that, but this time I stood my ground. I told him I didn?t like the way he disrespected the way I wanted to live my life. I told him no. He was very angry at first, then told me that he never even liked me, and he heard I would of 'put out'. That's when my middle school days come back to haunt me. I called my friends very upset and they surprisingly still cared. I thought they wouldn't want to talk to me, but they were there. I was glad I got out of that relationship, but I know next time I need to make better decisions when dealing with pressure. I really never loved him, what I felt was infatuation, which is something the ReL8 teacher told me. I have learned to stand up for my beliefs, and I will not be pressured again. I stood up for myself and I'm sticking to my decisions about premarital sex, drug use, and alcohol. I cant take back my past, and I wish I could, but I'm living my life differently now and couldn't be any more proud about it.
Fall 2007- Amaris Woodlard is a high school sophomore from Collinsville, IL. She submitted her entry for the ‘Top 10 ways to avoid tempting situations with your boyfriend/girlfriend’ Contest in September and after careful consideration, was chosen as our first place winner!
Take a look at her Top 10 List and pictures taken when Amaris was awarded with her iPod shuffle and iTunes giftcard.
Amaris' Top 10 List:
1. Go out with another couple with the same standards that you do, like an accountability couple.
2. Discuss with your boyfriend or girlfriend what you are looking for in your relationship.
3. Have meetings with your parents so that they can be your covering.
4. Do activities that wouldn't be putting you in those tempting situations.
5. Stay in. Have a date at your house so your parents can be there to help you stay on track.
6. Don't enter into the physical area of touching your boyfriend or girlfriend in an inappropriate manner.
7. Maintain a brother-sister like relationship, treat him or her as you would a relative or a sibling.
8. Don't get into intimate emotional discussions to avoid the deep feelings that should be saved for your marriage partner.
9. To strengthen your resolve for purity, develop a stronger relationship with the Lord.
10. Don't watch movies or listen to music that encourages immoral behavior and premarital relations.
