Does your rice purity test score define you as a person?

The Rice Purity Test is a survey that measures the amount of rebellious, sexual experiences an individual has had in their life. (Credit: The Rice Purity Test)

Is living in your twenties all about checking off as many boxes as you can? 

The Rice Purity Test is an online survey in which you check off boxes of all the “taboo” things you have done. Ranging from “sex in public” to “running away from the cops.” 

The test first appeared for me in middle school. Where the lunchroom was divided into three: the cool kids (sports and academics), the quiet girls (who, when you became friends with, were not so quiet and innocent) and finally the weird kids.  

I think I had a score of 96. I was the quiet Christian boy who everyone knew was gay, but I just needed a few more minutes to figure that one out.  

Scores ranged from my 96 to a 13-year-old boy who had convinced us all he had a score of 22. He pleaded hard and we just wanted to be liked, so we convinced ourselves it was true. 

Now in our twenties and more comfortable in telling the truth of our experiences, our scores of 96 windled down to 48. 

This past week, I have probably asked everyone I have talked to about their rice purity score. Even if it was the first time I had ever spoken to them; it’s a pretty good ice breaker.  

The answers I accumulated were varied.  

“The experience itself has defined me, but the score itself has not,” said a girl with a score of 26. 

“Not a ‘different’ person but more experienced,” said another girl with a score of 42. 

The majority of the test consists of sexual questions, such as “been photographed or filmed during sexual intercourse by yourself or others?” or even “been walked in on while engaging in a sexual act?” 

I couldn’t help but wonder, is sex a dominant factor in our personalities and lives?  

The question and answer are subjective to any. And again, the answers were never leaning towards a certain side.  

In the throes of conversation, the answer that I liked the most was, “it’s about comparing the change in experience from now and the past.” 

The answer sparked an even larger conversation, demanding us to reflect on our first year of university. Looking back and seeing how lost we were, how we’ve had to adapt to the ways of society. 

In the world of sex and its conquest, I believe sex and “taboo” experiences can be labeled as any to anyone.  

But, let's say, you're a second-year university student, constantly in conversations about sex and relationships with no experience at all and you find that the experience was not like that of the movies.  

Just know, everyone has bad sex in their lives.  

Everyone makes mistakes that do not define them. We simply “live and die.”

They say your twenties are about making mistakes, thirties are for fixing them and your forties are about finally accepting your life.  

That’s a completely false statement.  

Turn that stupid test off and go have sex.

Be young, wild and free.