Where was I.....

oh yes, no sex please, we're teenagers. Much better episode this time. It was good to hear the reservations that the leaders had over the silver ring thing, and it was refreshing to hear the girl criticising the event for being all one sided. At least it shows that she is really thinking and engaging with the content.

The support that each indiviual gained from being a member of the romance academy group was really interesting. How many of them would've taken the abstinance vow without being part of a group, likewise how many teenagers would go to church fellowship without their friends? When do you reach that stage when you feel confident enough in your 'faith' to venture somewhere alone? Would I still go to the church I worship at if my close friends left, or would I find another church with likemined people?

What I continually find amazing about this programme is the frank honesty of the teenagers taking part, and their way of articulating the impact the romance acadamy has had on the way they now view friendships and relationships. It was sad to hear that girls sister tell the story of meeting some bloke at a night club who she later had sex with cos it felt right at the time, and the reason it felt right is because for those moments she felt comfortable with herself and appearance and confident because someone appeared to be finding her attractive. Whereas her twin sister had gathered that she didn't need to have sex to be comfortable with herself, and the confidence she gained from this knowledge was lasting and not fleeting like that of her sisters.

Then why is abstinance such a joke, it seemed really difficult for the teenagers to encourage their own peers to join the project. The response they received was luke warm at best. What is the culture that makes it seem that not having sex is the weirdest thing anyone can do. Surely this just fuels the insecurities of being a teenager. If you're not having sex then it seems that current culture dictates that you must be lacking in something, and that is obviously attractiveness to other people. So if you don't feel attractive that just fuels the insecurities and so it appears that having sex is thought to be the answer to this problem. However the undergraduates of the Romance Academy are learning that this is not the case at all.

One moving part of the programme was the girl who split up from her boyfriend, she realised that she had matured in her thinking and was now in a place that was alien to her boyfriend. She now found it difficult to connect with him. It was sad to hear her retell the difficulty she had in trying to explain this to her boyfriend in order to end the relationship.

it seems that there is now a Romance Academy web site.