Jun 23, 2013 3 min read

Personal Matter

Hey, Coach! I made some mistakes when I was younger, and I have been paying a price for some of those mistakes for several years. One of my mistakes led to an STD from one of the guys that I used to see. This is a lesson for anyone reading this to make sure that you know who you’re involved with, and then still take every precaution when engaging in sexual activity. I found out that he was involved with several women while I was seeing him, but he told me that we were exclusive, and I believed and trusted him. I could blame him for deceiving me, but I know I am responsible for what happened since I did not make him use condoms while on the pill. I have never had any problems attracting attention from men, and I am asked out a lot, so I am very fortunate. However, I will always face the dilemma for the rest of my life about how and when to tell men that I have this issue. I have told them early on when dating and also waited until we were ready to have sex. Nothing has been working as far as a long-term relationship. The longest has been about 5-6 weeks, and then they make up some lame excuse why they don’t want to continue seeing me. Of course, it’s obviously because of the STD. So, what’s a woman to do? This is going to be with me forever, and I want to date and eventually get married and have a family. Signed….Always Be Safe

Dear Always be Safe: Thank you for your courage to come forward with this. While we admire your stance about your responsibility, all of us would like to believe that our significant others are faithful and honest, and, unfortunately, sometimes people are untruthful. From this seat, we can see several sides of this matter regarding when to open up about this, and the Coach would have suggested something that you appear to have already tried, and that’s waiting until you get to know the other person well before sharing your story. Perhaps a good suggestion is to consider talking to a professional regarding this matter about when and how to open up regarding this topic. Again, thank you for coming forward with this, and hopefully we have all learned something. Best wishes for success!

Pirates

Where are all the Pirate bashers? Perhaps there’s not too much about which to “scream,” because at last look, the Bucs had the fifth best record in baseball. The Bucs have been mostly superb on the mound, which is the main reason they have done so well. Their hitting is still very suspect, but hopefully that will start to heat up. All of this is happening while they have had a lot of injuries, especially to the starting pitching, where only one of five “opening day starters” is still taking the mound.

Coach’s Comment: The person who makes no mistakes usually doesn’t make much of anything. Be safe, and thanks for making the Coach a part of your weekend!