The human papillomavirus is quite a mouth full when spelled out. Most of us are more familiar with the abbreviated term HPV: the virus that has swept its strands across the country, infecting more than 6.2 million people each year.

When everyone’s favorite hockey mom, Sarah Palin, was selected to run alongside John McCain in the 2008 presidential election, the Palin family’s political and personal lives were subjected to relentless media scrutiny.

How else to start a series about sexual health than to talk about my introduction to the act itself? With any luck, my parents will never read this and will forever assume that I am a wholesome youngster who has no idea what the word “sex” even means.

Around me, plasma televisions glowed with images of champions and triumph, but all I could see was you. In front of me sat someone who was desperately trying to be normal—whatever that means these days—but whose heart was probably beating as quickly as it ever had.