#TBT: “Sex Before Marriage? Not Me” (January 1987)

So, this is my new tribute to #TBT: Journal entries from yesteryear, carefully hand selected and edited only for length–everything else is as it was written then. Names have been changed and will be from here on in.

In this episode, the hard truth about friends with shifting sexual priorities and the post-holiday blues. All you need to know is that my friend Donna (name changed per her request) was the most rock-n-roll, glamorous friend I had. She had a head of wild curly hair and wore dangly earrings and off-the-shoulder shirts. When we were 13, when this was written, she seemed 18 to me, though she was also so innocent in some ways. She taught me how to wear eyeliner. I hated that I wasn’t her.

(Note: I didn’t hold out til marriage, either. In fact, it’s marriage that I became far more leery of than sex.)

January 1, 1987 (8th grade):

9c6eddc70db140da55890605885463a4“What a blah day. I did nothing but watch two movies, eat, talk (or at least listen) to Donna “Bon Jovi.” Boy, she’s crazy for Jon Bon Jovi. I feel like I totally wasted the day, which I did. The only good thing is that it snowed five inches. Tomorrow, Donna will come over and we’ll sleigh-ride our butts off.

I feel stuck. See, this vacation is boring, very slow. But I really don’t want school, either. What’ll I do? I have no choice, unfortunately.

Something’s bothering me. See, last year, Donna and me avowed the fact that we would never have sex with any guy until we were married. But now, Donna gets so cool with these Jon Bon Jovi tapes that she says she will definitely do it by 24 even if she’s not married. Probably because Bon Jovi did it already. I said I thought she never ever would until marriage last year.

But no, she says. “That was last year.” She always says when we are shocked something she did, “You guys don’t know me.” That gets me mad. Like I’m a nobody who never changes? Now I feel like I’m wrong in saying that I won’t until marriage. Donna wants everyone to be curious of this “other Donna” that she thinks there is, but I don’t.”

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