Retaking Sex Ed

A few months before I was scheduled to depart for what would be my first tour in Afghanistan in 2009, my friend J.P. offered me a warning. "You're going to be tempted to try and sleep with your girlfriend," he cautioned me. "But don't do it. It will only make things worse for you and her." Unlike myself -- I had reached my mid-twenties relatively unscathed from social pressures to participate in the hyper-sexualized American youth culture -- J.P. had done a lot of things he regretted. Consensual, casual sex that seemed harmless had left its scars. I took his advice.