I'm 20 years old and like most people on The Odyssey, I'm a millennial. Millennials get a lot of hate for everything, but especially for dating. Or the lack thereof. You always hear about how hookup culture will be the cause of the apocalypse, but I'm here to defend this.

Growing up, I heard that you should only have sex with someone if you loved them. I went to Catholic school, so that someone was reserved as your spouse of the opposite sex. When I got to high school, I started to question this. Does having sex before marriage make someone dirty and impure? If so, why? Why should my, or anyone's, value be based on body count?

A person who engages in casual sex is pretty much screwed regardless of gender. Sexually active men are seen as untrustworthy and corrupt while sexually active women are seen as slutty and immoral. We hold men up to these impossibly high chivalrous standards while women are held up to unrealistic purity standards. In reality, a person's body count doesn't define them. I have met terrible people who have happened to be virgins and wonderful people who have slept with over fifteen people. Body count is just that: body count.

The resentment towards casual sex can be connected to people's unwillingness to talk about sex, leading it to be a taboo subject. I was raised in a family where obstetrics and gynecology are widely practiced so I could always ask questions. Unfortunately, not everyone has that luxury. A poor sex education leads to unprotected sex, leading to STDs and pregnancy. If people were more willing to talk about sex, people would not be so embarrassed to ask questions.

I always see articles and posts shared on social media along the lines of "Why I was Born in the Wrong Generation," "Why Don't We Date Anymore?," and "Why I Can't Stand Hook Up Culture." These are foolish because in reality, someone's love life and choices do not affect you unless you are dating them. If the person next to you has sex with twenty different people in the span of a week, who cares? If the person next to you is saving himself or herself until marriage, who cares? Neither scenario affects you in the grand scheme of things.

What I'm trying to get at is to let people live their lives. After college comes the real world, so let people have their fun. If you don't agree, that's fine. Serious dating and relationships are also totally okay. It's time we as a society let people make their own choices. If you want to safely hook up with twenty people, go for it. If you want to be celibate, cool. Want to live in a forest and never communicate with society? Weird but okay. Live and let live.