Free Teens USA - Mt. Vernon

On July 18, 2007 Denzel Washington visited his Hometown of Mount Vernon, NY to celebrate the positive accomplishments of the city's youth. Among several accomplished youth were a Nationally ranked track star who will be in the Junior Olympics next week in California, the Valedictorian of Mt. Vernon HS who received a full scholarship to Harvard in the fall, the CO-captains of the MVHS State Championship Basketball Team with a 3.7 GPA each. Also honored was Dominique Hart, Miss Free Teens USA 2007. The MC explained that Dominique is in the Free Teens program because it supported her in making good choices for her future like abstaining from sex until marriage. She explained some points about the Free Teens program and that she was going to Virginia State in the fall.
Denzel presented Dominique and the other outstanding Mt. Vernon youth with copies of his book.

Dominique Hart
Doles Center Club, Mt. Vernon, NY
Miss Free Teens 2007 (Queen)

Picture this. You’re in a race. Within this race are many distractions. Think about your own personal distractions.  Some of yours might be hangin’ out with the “in” crowd, having the cutest, or just cute, boyfriend, learning the latest dances, etc. Then I want you to think about your goals. Some of your goals may include being the top student in your class, graduating college, or even becoming Mr. or Miss Free Teens USA yourself.  All of which are good, but it has to be important and have meaning to you so that those very same distractions do not steer you down the wrong path causing you to not finish the race (in this case, your goals).
 So many people that surround me everyday of my life are not as careful about their sexuality as they want to be or as they try to be. They think that it is a cool and dandy until something negative happens to them, such as, becoming a fulltime parent instead of remaining a fulltime student. When this happens, they begin to feel like “Whoa is me” or “Why did this happen to me?” When consequences like this come into effect, it is even more motive for me to abstain from sex until marriage.
I understand that abstaining from sex will be difficult. But I would rather not worry about anything in terms of infections, pregnancies or anything of that nature. I do not want the burden, nor do I want to stress about if “I am healthy or not.” You have to admit it, when you are free from guilt, you feel light, carefree and careless. You can focus on tasks given to you; you do not have to worry about anything because you have done no wrong. But when you are the opposite, everything in terms of yourself is opposite. You feel depressed, always stressed out about something you did in the past that might end in bad consequences for you.
For me personally, I do not want to be apart of any statistic that is not in my best interest for myself or my future. Besides if I followed the crowd and the world, in the end, they will not be there to help me along when something bad comes my way, like HIV or AIDS for example. So if I know certain things like that are going to happen, if I pursue that road of premarital sex, then why I would do that in the first place.
I don’t know about anyone else but I love my body, my life and my future that I am continuing to plan for my wellbeing. So anything that does not correspond to my initial plans, then it is not something I want to do or even be apart of. Staying healthy, positive, and pure is all I want for myself, my future family. The only way I will continue that or even pass this practice on is start now when I am a young adult. The earlier I begin to practice this beneficial habit, the better off I will be if I continue to do so. Besides I want to be a great role model for my children when I grow up to be a wonderful mother, like my mother, who doesn’t anyway?

Doles Center Club
Mount Vernon, NY

12/07/06