Scarleteen

I am going to start the pill.

I feel a bit anxious about it, though. I know how the pill works and I know why I want to start taking the pill but it still feels like a "big thing".
Starting to take the pill would not mean that I would have more sex than before or that the sex would be different, but I suppose I've always viewed the pill as being an "adult thing". Although i am 17 and have had sex multiple times (and have felt ready for it, both physically and mentally) I don't feel "adult enough" to take birth control.

Can anyone relate to how I'm feeling?

To be clear: I will continue to have protected sex (condoms are always used, I would just ALSO be taking birth control) and will start taking the pill when my next period starts (as I've been instructed to take it on the first day of my period) or the period after that.

I may be the person least able to relate, as I went on the pill when I was around 13, and by the time I was 15 or 16 -- mind, this was back when our only BC options were mostly condoms or the pill -- most people I knew who had a vagina were on it.

I don't personally think it makes much sense to think about sex or preventing pregnancy as adult things: people are sexual even as children, though not in the same ways they usually are as adolescents or older adults. And certainly, parenting is something that's difficult even when someone is an adult, and typically much, much more so when someone is not.

By all means, though, choosing to take control over your own reproduction -- and thus, life -- is a taking-responsibility thing, and certainly an independence and autonomy thing, just like making sexual choices for yourself is.

I don't know if any of that speaks to you or not, and am not entirely sure what you're looking for with this, so holler at me if I can be of any help, like if you want to have a discussion about if the pill is the right choice for you or not.