Some not-especially-organized thoughts about my experience with puberty:

First, for the clinically-minded among you, here's an outline of the sequence and approximate ages that I went through the various stages of puberty.

1. penis/testicles got sensitive (prepuberty), 11a;
2. testicles began growing, hanging lower, 11b;
3. first pubic hair (almost nonexistent for 1st year), 11b;
4. ejaculated clear stuff, 11d;
5. penis began growing, 12a;
6. ejaculated thick white stuff, 12b;
7. began muscular development, 12b;
8. armpit hair, 13b?;
9. penis and testicles reach near-adult size, 13c;
10. voice change, 14b;
11. facial hair, 15?.

That's my best recollection, but I could be off on some of those dates, especially the stages that were a continual process over several years (like muscles), as opposed to being single, specific events.

I can date the two ejaculation milestones pretty closely. The clear "ejaculation" (I put that in quotes because it was barely enough to call an ejaculation - one little droplet appearing at the tip of my penis) happened during masturbation one night. I'm sure about that, because I would've noticed if I'd produced anything before that while jacking off (I was watching closely); and if I'd squirted anything into Alex's mouth, he would not have kept quiet about it. :) That, evening, I was super excited about it - it was so cool! And, naturally, since I was at home with just family around, there was nobody to tell. (It crossed my mind to call Alex and tell him immediately, in some kind of code - e.g., "Hey Alex? I got wet just now..." :)) But I couldn't think of any way to be discreet enough on the phone. I did promptly masturbate again, but it was dry that time; I guess I shot my whole wad with that single droplet.

That clear stuff is the first liquid boys produce - that was true according to the books I consulted, and that was my experience for me and for the boys I had sex with. The clear liquid is actually kind of gel-like, in my experience and observation. It's secreted by the Cowper's glands and/or the testicles themselves. It can and often does have sperm in it. The white stuff is secreted by the prostate gland, which is that big bump that you can feel just inside your anus toward the bottom. (It's not actually in your rectum - it just presses against it.) By the way, don't believe what you read in porno stories: it's not true that your semen is stored in your balls. Only a very small percentage of your ejaculation fluid comes from your balls.

I could go on, but I'm just restating what you'll read in any good source for boys anticipating or going through puberty. Here are several websites I think are helpful. I especially like them because: (a) they take kids seriously; (b) they don't use alot of technical terms and jargon, just plain language; (c) they aren't preachy and moralizing; and (d) the last I checked, all of them had sections or elements for gay/bisexual boys.

• Boy Stuff
• All About Sex
  
• Puberty 101
• Coalition for Positive Sexuality

There are also a bunch of books for boys going through puberty. Check Amazon.com if you want a good selection. And I repeat: Don't get your sex education from porno stories. Most of that stuff is half-fantasy and half outright bullshit.

As I've said before, only twice did Alex get share in my newfound ability before he moved away. Both times were BJs; both times were preceded by dry orgasms a day or two before; and in both cases we did it again right away, trying for another squirt. It didn't work. Production at that stage is very irregular and not plentiful.

Alex wasn't as thrilled as I was about the whole thing. He was glad for my sake, but it wasn't like he was excited about having something to deal with at the end of my orgasm. The first time, he didn't spit, but he didn't exactly make an effort to swallow either. After I finished coming, he pulled off and said "Wow - I think you squirted that time." I immediately demanded "Lemme see!" He opened his mouth, but all I could see was saliva, or what appeared to be saliva. That was sort of what I expected, in light of the clear droplets I'd produced so far, but I was still hoping it would be white and thicker (at that point, I was hazy on how soon ejaculation changed during puberty.) Alex said it didn't have much taste. He swallowed it after a minute, but by that point it had been diluted by his saliva to the point he couldn't taste it anymore, or so he said. As I mentioned, I got him to suck me again within a half-hour (I sucked him again in between), but the well was dry that time.

The second time with Alex was a week and a half later, I'm pretty sure - the first time was a weekend, and the second time was a Tuesday or Wednesday evening. The circumstances were basically the same, except that this time Alex spit it out. He said it didn't taste very good that time. To me, it just looked like spit in the Kleenex. (I won't fault anyone for not liking semen of any type; I don't like the taste myself.)

I remember my first white ejaculation very well, at 12.5 years old. It was also while jacking off. I was having sex with other boys during that time, and it's possible my first time shooting white stuff was into another boy's mouth, before I realized I could do it. I think it's unlikely, though. Although that was during my promiscuous phase, most of my partners were one-way, meaning that I sucked them, but they didn't suck me. (That was okay - not ideal, but okay. I liked sucking just as much as being sucked, then.)

The event itself was kind of cool. It was Saturday morning. I was in my bedroom, on my hands and knees... well, actually on my knees and one hand... having a fantasy about fucking a girl (sorry :)) from the rear. When orgasm approached, I speeded up my stroking, as usual. And I felt this pressure inside my groin that I'd never felt before. It wasn't strong or dramatic, but it was different. Within a few seconds, I shot off. By this time I was getting liquid every time, so I wasn't surprised to feel the spurting - but again, something felt different. I had my face buried in my pillow and wasn't looking at my underwear underneath me, which I was using to catch the ejaculation (yes, I did put on a clean pair afterward! :)) Only after I finished did I look down at the bed - and there were several strings and blobs of white. YES!! :)

I liked it. I liked it a lot. In fact, I liked it so much, I did it again eight more times that day. I ran dry around number six, but I kept going, on purpose. Orgasms Number Seven and Eight weren't so much fun - and the next day, I was sore as hell down there, especially inside. In fact, I remained sore for the better part of a week. I don't recommend eight straight. :)

I used to j/o at least once a day, most days, regardless of whether I was having sex at the time or not. I usually didn't go 48 hours without an orgasm, from around the time I found my Big 3 Books at age 10.5, until I went away to college right before I turned 18. One exception: I deliberately went three weeks without an orgasm, because I'd never had a wet dream and I wanted one. That was around age 14 if I recall correctly - I'm not positive, but it was during a spell where I didn't have any willing boy-sex partners, and there were several of those spells when I was fourteen. It was three weeks of torture, and I never had the dream - and to this day I've never had one. I still wonder what they're like...

As should be well-known to readers by now, I'm not very large in the penis and testicles department. That's fine with me. I think being obsessed with your own dick size is a major, clear signal that you need a life. :) Okay, that's not nice. I'll be more charitable, and say that I know alot of boys wonder and worry about it, and I don't disrespect them for that, because it's all about peer pressure at that age. But adults have no excuse. I'll say to any boys who ask: Yeah, it's possible to have a great sex life with a little weenie. Just think "deep throat." :) And, from my experience with Kenny: Trust me, you do not wanna be screwed by a well-endowed boy, the first time you do it - unless you like pain and bleeding. of course, if your boyfriend has a big one, there's not much you can do to change him. :) But use alot of lube and go really slowly, and straddle him so you're sitting down on his cock and you can control the rate of penetration.

By the way, I do know what it's like to be on the upper end of the scale, size-wise. For about six months, centered between my 13th and 14th birthdays, I actually was bigger than the other kids my age. (That's not saying much of course; some boys hadn't even started puberty yet, and most of the rest hadn't started as early as I did.) The randomness of puberty-roulette gave me most of my full adult-size penis and testicles during that period - not to mention having a height growth-spurt at the same time. The swim-team picture of me in the thoughts about swimming narrative gives you the idea; it was taken in March of my 8th-grade year. I was happy about that growth. The big dick wasn't special, although I found it kind of amusing. But I really wanted to be taller and heavier. The whole thing was a false alarm, unfortunately - one of Mother Nature's little practical jokes. :)

As you'll note, most of my information about puberty - and sex in general - has been acquired through experience. My Big Three books were the source of much of my "formal" sex education, but they didn't have alot to say about how boys or girls came of age sexually - they focused on what boys or girls did afterwards. I remember at age seven running across a book or booklet belonging to my friend Frankie's older brother, titled (if I remember rightly) "What Every Boy Ought to Know." He kept it in his bedside table drawer, and we found it while snooping through his stuff. :) I don't remember much about that book, except that it had drawings of how a boy's physical appearance changed as he grew. Probably the same drawings are still used today, or closely-related drawings; boys haven't evolved much in the past 30 years. :)

I was curious about that book, and wanted to look at it further, but Frankie wasn't interested, so we dropped the issue and went on to something else. Frankie moved away the next year, and I never got to look at it again. So, that was my formal sex-ed; that, and the infamous "Boy Talk" lecture at Y-camp when I was nine.

Of course I had plenty of experiences with other boys. But that wasn't very helpful in giving me an idea of what was going on at the time, puberty-wise, for two reasons: (a) I started puberty before most of my friends, and before all of my friends with whom I experimented sexually; and (b) I rarely fooled around with older boys - not even a couple of years older. The two major exceptions were 17 year-old Brandon, the 16 y/o lifeguard who tried to show me how to 69; and I did learn some new things by having sex with them.

In terms of boy-anatomy, I learned by far the most with my two boyfriends, Alex and Kenny. Alex was basically prepubescent and Kenny was basically sexually mature the whole time I was having sex with each of them, so I missed the opportunity to examine another boy as he went through puberty.

Of the two, I learned more with Alex, mostly because I had less information and experience and was consciously exploring, filling in gaps - we were both doing that. I enjoyed just looking at Alex's penis and scrotum. He had the typical little boy's scrotum: tightly drawn up against his body, testicles small and firm. His cock was pretty - there's no better word for it. It was slender and long, and it got longer during the time we were together; as I mentioned, when we finally got around to measuring (with cigarettes!) a few months before he left, it had lengthened by maybe a half-inch, maybe a bit more, to nearly four inches stiff. It was also longer in the soft state. Alex was an exception to the puberty sequence in all the books, because his penis got bigger before his balls. That was the only change I noticed during our time together.

Alex and I compared our weenies a bunch of times in addition to the cigarette incident, although that was the only time we actually used a measuring device to do it. We'd stand side-by-side or facing each other and hold our cocks out, comparing sizes. His was always longer than mine, both hard and soft, even though I'd pull on it to get the maximum stretch. Purely boy-rivalry. We also had sword-fights with our boners (something I did with other boys a number of times, too, as noted.)

In addition to sucking each other off, Alex and I licked each other a few times - just got down between the other's legs and licked all over. It was a better way to just look and observe. That's not why we did it - we did it just because it was fun and felt good - but the up-close examination was a fringe benefit.

With Kenny, it was altogether different. I liked examining Kenny's boy-anatomy too; I liked that alot, and he liked examining mine. But it wasn't really exploration. It was very goal-oriented. Kenny and I were into sex with each other, leading to orgasm, and we didn't take many side-trips. One thing I do recall vividly was several occasions when I jerked Kenny off, and watched closely what happened as he got close to the edge and went over. I already knew alot of what to expect from my previous experiences, but even so, I picked up some details that I hadn't realized before. I knew, for example, that a boy's testicles and scrotum pulled up closer to his body right before orgasm, and I knew his penis swelled; but not until Kenny did I notice that both of them seemed to get darker during the process. (Having very little boy-sex after Kenny, I'm not sure if that was typical of boys or if it was just Kenny.)

It's sort of hard to describe these anatomical details - this is one endeavor where a picture would be worth a thousand words. But the words will have to suffice, because: (a) I don't have any pictures of my friends and/or me naked, much less sexually active; (b) if I did, it would be a violation of their privacy (and mine) to show you; and (c) even if all of the above weren't a problem, there's the small matter that pictures like that would be kiddie porn, and I'd go to prison for having them.

This is as good a place as any to state one of my strong convictions. I'm opposed to child pornography. I've seen it, and nobody can convince me that those kids are enjoying themselves, especially the kids with adults. My guess is that alot of those boys and girls were stoned when they did it. I can imagine that two or three boys together, goofing around with a Polaroid camera, might be a different scenario. But I think it should all be illegal, because there's no way to distinguish between that and the pedophile-industrial pictures. That's my parental side speaking, and I feel strongly about it. Taking explicit pictures of kids - without their consent, or with it - is exploitative, cruel, and evil.

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Finally, for those of a metaphysical turn of mind, here are some thoughts to ponder. Puberty in boys (and I assume girls, though I've never checked) is associated with the activation of the lower chakras. This has something to do with opening the mind and spirit to receiving wisdom, which in turn is why many traditional cultures create spiritually-significant initiation rites at puberty that involve fasting and wilderness and contemplation.

It's also why "poltergeists" are often associated with pubescent kids. Lots of the famous poltergeist stories (not including the famous fakes) take place with an adolescent or two in the house. This is supposedly because the hormonal surge opens the chakras and allow involuntary, unconscious psychokinetic abilities to emerge.

(Then again, maybe the kids just want to play with themselves in private, and throw ashtrays around so everyone else will go downstairs.... :))