Here’s what the teens are saying:
“Honestly I was convinced that today I was ding to kill myself… I didn’t have any reason to live or go on and I felt that people would be better off with out me.. but after Lena made me talk to you… and after I felt as if someone actually cared.. and I wanted to say thank you.. You LITTERALLY saved my life…. so ya… thank you.”
“I’ve had a bad past and now I want to change my life. Thanks so much for always being there for all of us kids. You have no idea how many of us have no one.”
“Befor today it was my goul to have sex befor my 8th grade graduation. but now I do respect womens body more. thank you.”
“It really helped me more than you know because just last night i was giving up if you know what i mean. may the rest of your life be filled with as much joy as you put into others’ !”
“Well I feel very relieved right now. I feel as thought you have lifted a big weight off my shoulders. I have made a commitment to my self that I will not do the things I used to do. It is not going to happen anymore after today. You totally changed my outlook on everything.”
“Yesterday’s presentation I thought was very informative. I just wish we would have had it six months ago. Well, right now I’m three months pregnant, and honestly think that this would not have occured in my life if I had heard this talk six months ago. Well, you live and you learn.”
“Both my parents have been married three times and divorced three times and they are both dating people right now. So I really never had anyone to look up to, to tell me that I would regret anything sexual that I did. That’s why I am glad that you came and talked to my school because now I have someone to look up to.”
“You are my LIFESAVER, Dude. You have NO IDEA! I can’t begin to explain to you the profound impact you have had on my life. I am sitting here crying as I write this. In one afternoon you changed me completely.”
“I cried while listening to your talk. It was almost like you had taken my heart and read it out loud. I had reservations in going to see you speak, but as soon as I got there, I knew I was in the right place. A good friend of mine had seen you and kept telling me how incredible you were. He was telling me how you talked about how I should love my future husband and abstain. He said that the way to love him is to love and respect myself as well, and by having sex I didn’t respect myself. He told me I should go. I always said thanks, but no thanks. Then last Friday I was over at this guy’s house and I started thinking about what he had told me. How I wasn’t respecting and loving myself. I got up and left. And I decided I would go see you speak before I would do anything else. I went to the college last night with reservations. I didn’t know what was going to happen and how I would feel afterward. But I am so grateful I went. It changed my whole outlook on myself. Thank you. Jason, thank you.”
“i was headed down a bad path and i think you might have saved me from making life changing choices and possibly you saved my life. so thank you!!!:)”
“I am a freshman who attended your talk at the University in Philadelphia. I was blown away to say the least. Your talk was absolutely amazing and approached sex and relationships in a way I have never thought of them. Instead of looking down on sex and making it seem like it was a terrible thing, you made me look at it in a totally different light. You made sex seem so beautiful, that it is worth waiting for.”
“To be honest, I didn’t really believe in chastity before the talk. If it weren’t for your speech, I might have been stuck with a child before 18. For that one hour I truly thought about my life and how I want to live it. Well, now I know how I want to live it: to the fullest, for my future husband and children.”
“I used to be addicted to porn, but after your talk I promised myself that I would quit once and for all. I have tried in the past to quit. But you finally hit the right spot on my conscience. I would like to thank you.”
“My purity had never been that big of a deal to me, until I went to your speech. I realize how important it is to not let someone take advantage of you for their own pleasure. I am so happy that I went yesterday and I’ve decided to stay a virgin until I get married.”
“Jason, now that I think about my past, I really regret some of it. But on Wednesday, I decided to start completely over. Once again, thank you soo much for taking your time to fly down to Alabama. You touched many of our hearts and helped me look forward to a better future. Thanks for all your help.”
“Recently, I was made fun of for being a virgin. I went to my mother and I told her what happened, and she told me that I should feel proud. Your talk made me really understand what she meant.”
“On the bus ride to your talk, which is about a 1 hr and 45 min drive, I was thinking this is just going to be some boring speaker and a wasted long trip on a bus without AC. After your speech, on the bus ride home, I thought to myself I would go on a 6 hour bus ride to listen to you. I know that when I go to high school next year I will be temped to do a lot of things that could hurt or haunt me for the rest of my life. Never stop giving your speeches because one voice can make a difference, and you proved that. You touched my life and I will always remember you! Thank you.”
“I am a guy. I look at porn at least once a week. I will never do it again now. Looking at it is not something I am proud of. It’s over now. Your speech has changed the way I look at girls now. My life will never be the same.”
“I think I was going towards the wrong way but you made me really think! Thanks a lot!”
“If it wasn’t for you, I don’t know if I would still be here today due to all the cutting. So thank you so much for helping me realize that it was possible for me to turn my life around and go back to respecting myself.”
“We met after the assembly, and I am the guy who lost my child through miscarriage. I’ve looked long and hard for redemption and I believe now you have given me the final push I need for a second chance.”
“Thank you very much, its really helped me. I really dont know what would have been of me had i not gone to the talk.”
”I thought I was going to hear another stupid lecture like all the others. My plan was to sit in the back and heckle you the whole time, but when you spoke, you didn’t give me the chance. Thank you for making me look at chastity in a different way. Now I’m starting to see it like it might be a good thing.”
”You changed a while outlook on life for me. I never thought about women really in a non-sexual way, but you changed me. Before your talk I was a guy who looked at porn. I couldn’t help myself. It was like Satan urging me and I let him in. I was a porno maniac. I was paralyzed, couldn’t even blink, so many thoughts going through my head. After your talk I even had a movie I was going to watch, but I threw it away. And I thank you for that.”
“I definitely have a sex-drive that has a Hemi with a V-8 engine that is ready all the time. But I look at sex and women a little differently. I look a little deeper into them now. Instead of seeing a hot chick walking down the street and thinking of what I could do with her, I think more of how her personality is like. What kind of person she really is. I look at the more than skin deep.”
”While you spoke, it clicked. I don’t want to just give out my most sacred gift to some guy who claims he loves me. I have a boyfriend, and I talked to him about what you discussed, and he was very interested. We were getting closer to being sexually active, but I believe you saved me, us, from making a huge mistake. Your wife’s story made me tear up because I knew I was also so vulnerable, boys are always trying to convince me to have sex, and tell me it’s o.k., I have come dangerously close. I knew next year going to high school would make it even worst. The story taught me that if she could say no, so could I. Thank you again. You have truly changed my life.”
“The one section of your talk that really jumped out at me, and made me feel like you were saying this to me, was the topic of the way a girl should dress. It really does make sense that a guy would be interested in a girl longer if she were more covered and it was a mystery. It really changed my perspective of what is right to wear, and also which companies I shouldn’t support. This meaning Abercrombie and Fitch and MTV. It is disgusting that these companies think they can control us, or think that we can’t control ourselves. Also, I really enjoyed the part where you talked about your wife. I have never met her, but hearing her story has inspired me to wait till marriage.”
“Your speaking really helped me out. I didn’t even know what I was going to do when I got in a more mature relationship. I mean should I move in with him or not? Should we have sex before we get married? I had no idea until you told us that we should wait.”
“The greatest thing about your talk was that you weren’t an adult who was trying to reach down to our level of thinking and use our language. You are an adult who is really not that much older than we are and who understands the way things are today and talked to us comfortably. It really made a difference with a lot of the people at our school, and just the fact that everyone was so well behaved at the assembly is a tribute to you, because we’re known for having some of the worst behaved kids around.”
“Hey, thanks for all the help. It really helped me to talk to you. When I got home, I got my pornography (without looking at it) and trashed it.”
“I am a senior, and we have a lot of different speakers come in, and in my time here none have touched our students like you did. I myself am not usually the kind of person that normally thinks twice about anything I’ve heard, in fact I’m usually the girl in back sleeping. But something about your presentation kept me awake and actually provoked a lot of serious thinking. I am definetly not the only one, to be honest our whole school has gone through a transformation… rumors of one girl throwing away her wardrobe and going shopping with her mom for more sophisticated clothing, and the idea that chastity is okay in the minds of other high schoolers are some of the changes being made. As someone who thought it was to late for me, no one had ever told me you could start over and still demand respect; I could definetly relate to a lot of your stories and I really can’t explain how moved I was and how much it all took me by surprise because like I said I’m not usually the kind of person who is motivated enough to take time to consider some of these things. I don’t know whether or not everyone who is talking about your speech will never have sex until thier married but you definetly planted a seed in the minds of everyone and you have definetly impacted my life, and I guess I feel that I owe you a thank you. I don’t know how often people follow up on these things, so I wanted to let you know how much your ideas inspired us and again I want to thank you!”
“We realize our future husbands will thank you one day and we are sure our parents will thank you forever (although the boys school next door may not!).”
