Imo State University: Where I Lost My Virtual Virginity

By Dr jalarth Uche Opara

The title may sound provocative, but it is not about sexual virginity. It is about the gradual loss of innocence that many young people experience in the university environment.

It is about the eyes seeing what they had never seen before, the ears hearing stories they had never imagined, and the mind confronting a world for which it was never prepared.

I arrived at the Postgraduate School of Imo State University with my virtual virginity very much intact. Nothing had been lost, nothing had been corrupted.

My eyes had never stumbled upon compromising scenes, and my ears had never been filled with tales of sexual escapades or other forms of moral decadence before then.

Looking back today, those memories still give me goosebumps.

I fought to preserve that innocence, but the environment and, to a great extent, the influence of friends was so compelling that within a few months, both my virtual and auditory virginity had disappeared.

There were occasions when I innocently walked into situations where students were engaged in intimate acts.

At other times, I sat among friends whose conversations revolved around explicit experiences and lifestyles that were completely foreign to me. At first, I found such discussions disturbing and distasteful.

With time, however, repeated exposure made them seem almost normal. That is how moral sensitivity can gradually become dulled.

My friends were socially exposed far beyond their years. They navigated that world with ease because they had encountered it much earlier. I had not. What shocked me initially slowly became familiar.

Thankfully, although my virtual and auditory innocence was challenged, I thank God that my moral convictions remained intact.

This is why I write this piece—not to condemn the university, but to warn students about the peels that would possibly bring one flat in a supine position

The university is a place of learning, discovery, and growth, but it can also become a place where one quietly loses precious moral strengths without even noticing.

The greatest danger is not always the first exposure; it is becoming so accustomed to it that it no longer troubles your conscience.
Guard your eyes. Guard your ears. Guard your mind.

What you repeatedly see and hear eventually shapes what you become.

The university environment is an addictive one. It has a way of compelling one into a lifestyle that initially wasn’t in the thought box of one.

It sets one on a high jump to be like others , especially those with a low flickering emotional intelligence.

Pick your circle of friends, what one detests and already deleted in one’s action boxes could be restored and become a priority through the agency of clique influence.

This isn’t for the University environment but can be seen in all life spaces.

Be circumspect and know where, either to draw lines or to embrace a handshake. All that glitters isn’t gold. As a student, pursuing those things that give pleasure to both your eyes and ears at the detriment of the core reason that brought you to the university environment would at the end give you woes than worth. Gory instead of glory and pains instead of gain.

Be wise and treat life with restrain and carefulness. Nobody excels feeding the eyes and ears with junks, o
If one can, the best thing is to remain virtually a virgin, for the eyes and ears are channels the mind gets either corrupted or preserved.

This is my story, certainly not a super story.

Jarlath Opara
jarlathuche@gmail.com