The Aerie
In a recent study, high school students were asked to identify their sexual partners. The researchers claim to be surprised at the results, but I'm not. No, this graph pretty much explains why for a long time I've felt like a lone blue dot.
What this graph tells me is that there are (or were in my case) a lot of people having a lot more fun in high school than I ever dreamed of. I mean, take a look at some of these people.
Now, in high school, all I hoped for was 
. No, really. Okay, okay, alright, what I actually hoped for was 
. But really, I'd've been fine with just .
I eventually achieved a , due to a series of odd circumstances that broke in my favor for a change - every dog having its day, as it were. Years later some former classmates claimed that my , I was actually part of a 
, but they are hardly reliable sources. And of course, it's a complete double-standard for me to be judgemental, seing as I was hoping for myself.
So okay, my 
may or may not have been having more fun than I was at the time, good for her I say. This was of course back in the ancient past, before the holocaust of HIV. Putting together a back then risked pregnancy at worst, and while that was bad enough it wasn't the soul-chilling horror that lurks out there today. We didn't know how good we had it.
But my sordid and somewhat pathetic history aside, what about some of the other dots in that network? I mean, who the heck is this guy 
? What the!? And who is she? 
Clearly I suffered from a deficit of imagination in high school... Sure all this does is expose my naievete, but holy moly, what kinds of parties are these kids going to?
On the other hand, I have reason to believe this report isn't entirely accurate. I mean, the chart says that there are 63 isolated pairs of 's, but it shows no isolated 
pairs or 
pairs - and really only a couple of such hookups among the more "active" groups.
Somehow I find it hard to believe that there are no or in these schools. I suspect that they were there, but that the students chose not to respond accurately to these anonymous surveyors. That gives me hope that the 's and the 's were just having a little fun with the surveyors too. And in turn that the fellows who claimed my was a may also have been full of baloney.
Cause things are a lot different and a lot more dangerous now than when I was a 
. It seems like with sex you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. And since I have a and a starting high school next year, I worry. I don't know what fate has in store for them in this regard, but I want them to be 
.