When I was in my third term holiday in S3, I went for holidays in the village to stay with my parents. I got some friends who were both boys and girls. The girls had boyfriends but for me I never had one.
Time came when one of the boys proposed to me that we should start a sexual relationship. At first I refused because I knew I was so young to engage in such. He promised never to hurt me and not to interfere with my studies. I listened to him and I thought he was understanding because he put my life and education as the first priority.
As we continued to slowly know each other in our relationship, I got to know that he had finished his secondary education and was taking a course at one of the institutions in Gulu. I got scared to be involved in a sexual relationship with a person who was much older than me because he was 22 years and for me I was just 16 years. Worse still, he had completed secondary school and I was just in S3. I took heart and told him I could not continue with him. He assured me that he loved me no matter my level of education and no matter my age. When I asked advice from one of the girls I trusted most, she just encouraged me not to give up the guy since she claimed to know the background of the guy.
Trouble came when my brothers got to know about my relationship with the boy. They called mum and dad and we had a family meeting. My brothers told my parents each and everything they knew about the relationship. This annoyed my parents so much especially my dad.
When mum questioned me about the relationship, I had nothing to say because all what my brothers had said was true. They called my boyfriends’ father to the meeting. The boy’s father could not believe because he knew him as a well-behaved boy and had never any case about him since childhood.
It was now my turn. Dad became so bitter that he started caning me. He was joined by my brothers. They caned me so seriously using wires and sticks and at the same time pouring water on me. I even fainted for the first time in my life but even then, they continued caning me and pouring water on me. My mother also fainted from her high blood pressure. Later I tried to rescue myself by running away from home and hid in the bust to give time for their anger to cool down. I become so embarrassed and I could not move around the village freely because I had become a village laughing stock for what had happened to me but my mother kept encouraging me because she loved me so much.
Dad made a resolution never to pay my school fees and that I should never ask him for requirements I needed in life.
Later I took a decision to end the relationship with my boyfriend and to continue with my life and studies. Good enough, I had not yet had my sexual intercourse with the guy.
So friends, a wise person learns from the experience of the others. Learn from my experience. Abstain and concentrate on your studies.
