There is nothing wrong with being a virgin, and it's nothing to be ashamed of! I find the whole idea that everyone is supposed to loose it as a teenager, or that we're all supposed to be permiscuous totally perplexing. It's all backwards, what happened to chastity and fidelity? If anyone thinks less of me because I have higher standards, I'm embarrassed for them, not of myself.

Having said that, I do find being alone and getting older painful. I feel sorrow at not being married, and sad because I haven't had sex. It's not that I need to check it off my list, or even because most people my age have, it's that I would like to experience that. I feel like something is missing from my life. At the same time I do NOT want anything less than exclusive, loving, secure, and forever. To me anything less would be a loss. I don't want to "sleep" with someone, I want to love someone, commitment. I'd rather save it, even if it means dying a virgin. To me love and marriage, and ideally babies, are what it's all about.

I'm 41. If anyone has a problem with that it's their problem, not mine. Of course it hurts being in my situation for personal reasons, but I'm not concerned in the least that anyone would think less of me for being a virgin. Honestly and truly I'm not. I feel quite the opposite, I feel bad that so many people cheapen sex so much. If sex isn't that important, why judge someone for not doing it? That doesn't make any sense to me.