Dear readers,

This is our special Valentine’s Day/Sex (slash relationships, slash stay informed, slash boom! for the sake of our economy) issue.

I won’t lie. This was probably the most exciting issue of the year for our staff. And it’s no wonder why.

Growing up, sex was such a hush-hush topic; it seemed dangerous and promiscuous. But now that we’re in college, it’s time to do what we’re good at and learn about it.

If you went to public school, you were probably taught all the protocols for having safe sex. Use contraceptives, don’t give into peer pressure and be aware of sexually transmitted diseases. If you didn’t go to public school, all the implicit messages were probably still there: Sex is bad.

It all seemed so scary at first, right? And it can be, but now you should be able to make your choices without having to feel guilty. Now that we’re all adults (woohoo college!), we can finally practice those decision-making skills all the old people were telling us about when we were young.

Some of us will choose to stay virgins and others of us will choose to have sex. Which ever path you choose, there is no judgement here.

If you plan on getting intimate with a special someone — and even if you don’t quite know if you’ll even have sex yet — we strongly encourage you to use your resources and learn about your bodies.

Pay a visit to our Student Health Services at 141 Piedmont Ave., Suite D (right next to the University Commons). Ask them for information on the women’s or men’s health care they offer, whichever most pertains to you.

Planned Parenthood is also right on our campus (at 75 Piedmont Avenue Northeast #800) and they give out condoms for free.

With this special issue, we hope to inform everyone on the issues you can’t really have a casual conversation about in public. What’s popular in the sex shops around Atlanta? What’s in those things anyway? What’s with this “Georgia State being a growing university for sugar babies”? What does “sugar baby” even really mean?

We even cover bases on dating etiquette, interracial relationships and the ways some women empower themselves.

Let us know how we did on our coverage this week — the good, the bad and the ugly — by emailing signaleditor@gmail.com. We’ll consider your thoughts and ideas for the next year.

And while you’re out there, remember to wrap it up.

Yours truly,

Editor-in-Chief