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I was at your funeral. The mortuary did a nice job, no one could tell the suffering you went through. The tired eyes, sunken cheeks and pallid skin had been disguised behind a mask of beauty and youth. This is the result of your illness, your stupidity that caused you to get an STD. It’s morally wrong to not use protection when having sex, especially when it could result in you contracting AIDS.
In your final days you wept for the life you could have lived. Had you given a thought to those you left behind? The ones who love you will have to deal with your loss, their tears drowning cities in their wake, their hearts an empty pit of agony that only expands, never getting smaller, never ending. An abyss where no sunlight ever gets through is what will reside in their hearts for years to come until you are nothing more than a memory. So yes your suffered, yes your life was unmercifully shortened but it’s the ones who will outlive you who will pay the price.
The jaws of death snapped at your feet like a hungry tiger when you lay in the hospital bed. It’s belly low to the ground, ready to launch at a herd of gazelle. It’s nose has picked up the scent of illness that permeates the air around you, as it’s hind legs bunch, it’s maw is lowered in anticipation of the meal you’ll make. Now can you see how wrong you were? You thought you were ready to have sex but you didn’t know the consequences, you didn’t know what you were doing. It was wrong for you to not use a condom, to not try to protect yourself from a disease that ravages and steals the life of thousands each year.
Over 40,000 people contract AIDS a year. If you ask them how they contracted it for the most part you will hear the same tale. They didn’t use protection, they didn’t think about what could happen to them. With so many examples of what can happen, it’s only logical to think things through, to learn from other’s mistakes. Don’t follow the herd like a mindless animal, break from the mold and be smart.
Lucky for you this isn’t your life now. You sit here before me in a desk, hearing about a disease that is just something you’re told about so many times but have yet to witness. Some of you will take my words to heart. While others will laugh it off and say, ‘That’ll never happen to me’. You’re wrong, teens are the largest growing group for people who contract AIDS and it’s only getting larger. So ask questions about what can happen when you have sex. Go and get tested before becoming that intimate with someone, no matter how embarrassing it may be. Use a condom, it could save your life and spare me another funeral.