I guess you could say that I was a late bloomer. I didn't lose my virginity until I was 19, when I went away to a college at a well-known and large state university. Through my high school years I was pretty much an introvert. I played sports and studied and that was it. It wasn't that I couldn't get dates...women found me attractive...it was just that I was shy and had a fear of rejection. So, I just kept to myself.

My low point of pathetic: I ended up taking my first cousin to my senior prom since I didn't have the nerve to ask anyone else. Predictably, it was a miserable experience.

So through my high school years, outside of "making out", it was just me and Mr. Hand...and we got along just fine.

Then, went I left home, something happened. I began to come out of my shell. Perhaps it was the fact that I lived in co-ed dorm...I dunno. I just became more at ease with myself and others. By my second semester, I decided to join a fraternity. This introduced me into a social circle that was new and exciting...unlike anything I'd ever experienced before.

The way I lost my virginity was a mistake. We knew each other only for a couple of hours before we ended up back at my room, both of us really smashed. To this day, I do not remember her name.

For months thereafter, I had deep feelings of guilt and stupidity. But, over time, these feelings passed and I became more confident in myself and who I was as a man. I went on to experience a wide variety of sexual situations with women much older and younger , of differing ethnic backrounds, and even group sex. I even slept with a man once, though I learned that being with a man isn't for me (I'm just too damned hetero)...I was still glad I tried it.

All of these events during my college years helped me to grow as a sexual person and a lover.

So, I suppose there wasn't any one event...my awakening happened over time.