At a young age my parents instilled in me the importance of playing well with others. They taught me to always share, and treat other how I would want to be treated. The world is full of people, and we have to learn to coexist with them.

However, at the same time my parents taught me how important it is to be able to entertain myself and rely on no one to make me happy. Even though the world is overpopulated it doesn’t mean there will always be someone there to hold my hand.

I realized as I grew up that while it is true we have to get along with others, the ability to entertain ourselves is a necessity. This is also true with sex. While it is true that is better with other people, a majority of us end up playing with ourselves. 

Growing up in a house with an older brother, I would often hear him and his friends joke about masturbation, and the guys at school would talk about it openly.

They would joke about how often they masturbated and what they watched while they did it. But every guy I asked to talk about masturbation refused to let me use his name. 

In my house we were taught not to be ashamed of it. Both my older brother and myself have been walked in on while masturbating, and no matter how embarrassing it is my parents would only joke about it and let it go. Now my 4- year-old little brother has started playing with himself. We do not scorn him. We just tell him to do it in his bedroom when no one is around. 

So if masturbation is natural enough for a 4 year old to do it, why don’t people want their name associated with it? The guys I talked to told me personal things about their alone time but denied me their name. 

Two guys told me how they often jack off to cartoon porn, and discuss what cartoon characters are the best to jack off to. Another told me that he masturbates to keep his anger at bay and keep him from snapping at people. One guy even said that his religious beliefs keep him from masturbating, and when he does he feels guilty afterwards.

When I asked girls their thought on masturbation, they didn’t even want to talk about it.

The only person that I got to speak openly was senior international studies major Tara Creighton. She said it is more acceptable for guys to masturbate and girls don’t talk about it that much.

“I personally don’t masturbate because I think it’s dirty and would rather someone do it for me,” Creighton said. “I don’t turn myself on, other people turn me on.”

Creighton also said she doesn’t think that all girls masturbate. The percentage is somewhere along 60 percent masturbate and 40 percent don’t, Creighton said.

Masturbation is normal, and no matter how or why you do it it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Like they say, “different stokes for different folks.”