friend

I can't remember a time when I did not play with my penis. It always felt good when it was erect and the skin tight. At age 7 or 8, a playmate joined me in this activity, but we did not do it to each other. Puberty came at about age 13 — pubic hair appeared and my penis began to enlarge. I heard boys in the playground talk about "coming," and I asked them about it and told them I had never done that. They said just to "keep on" doing it when I was playing with my penis and that I would get there.

I have had a larger-than-average penis all my life. This factor contributed greatly to my starting to masturbate. I was obsessed with penises, from the 6th grade on, I found they could "get big." This amazing quality was mind-boggling to me. I had a lot of friends, and during that time we had a lot of sleepovers. As most boys this age, we were just learning about sex and what our penises actually did. I began my masturbation career at one of these sleepovers. A group of my friends, 10 of us, were talking about girls and how sometimes when we thought of them, our penises became larger.

Masturbation — what a wonderful thing! I probably started masturbating late in life. I was 15 the first time I did it. I had experimented quite a bit with girls by that age, feeling their breasts and and even masturbating them, although not to climax I don't believe. I always got erections during this petting phase but never thought about masturbating.

I was reared in a home where sex was never mentioned; I never even heard the word "pregnant." How I managed to get to be 11 years old before learning the facts of life I do not know, but I did. I moved to a new school when I was in the 5th grade, and there I began to get a real education in things I'd never heard of. I knew where babies came from, of course, but I had no idea how they got there.

My story is somewhat different because I did not ejaculate by hand until I was nearly 18. I was raised in an extremely sexually repressive home. My mother did not believe in sex for pleasure and rarely engaged in it. Sex was never discussed at our house, and neither my 3 older brothers nor I ever received any sex instruction at home.

I am a 53-year-old man living in the U.K. I have been a regular (perhaps even a compulsive) masturbator all my life. However, I have also had a continual struggle to reconcile my feelings of guilt, the condemnation of my church, and the disinformation from my guardians with the pleasure I have derived from this universal activity.

Where I live, sex education is very lacking. They only tell you the raw basics: Man and woman get together, and sperm is transferred from male to female (somehow), and that's basically it. Nothing about how the whole erection thing happens, nothing about pleasuring yourself, or anything remotely close.

I distinctly remember the first time I masturbated — it was after reading a book about puberty when I was 12. I was lying in bed and I had an erection. I didn't know about masturbation yet, but I did know about things like oral sex. For some reason, I thought, "I wonder what it feels like..." and tried, unsuccessfully, to get my penis into my mouth. Instead, I put saliva in my hand and put it on my erection — I thought of it as a simulation of my mouth.

My masturbation career has been short, so far at least, but it has been very, very good. I guess there's just something about masturbation that once you start you can't stop, and no matter how many times you do it, it still feels good.

Hi, readers. This is the story of my life so far (or as much as I can remember anyway), so laugh, cry, whatever — just don't degrade it.