Sage advice given to me by a friend in the guise of a random comment

Prior to my first encounter with 'the wild thing' (ie sex!), one of my friends, who had already partaken of the wild thing, made a comment to me about the wild thing (and I'm paraphrasing, for the comment was made quite some time ago):

"It's not like in the movies, it's more down to earth, and things can go wrong."

She was mainly referring to the first time, or at the beginning (not that things can't go wrong after the beginning!), but I think she was also commenting on the romanticizing and airbrushing of sex - in films and novels (at least, mainstream films/novels), and in society in general.

I was very grateful for the comment/advice, which ensured that my first time wild thing expectations were drastically lowered - but in a good way - so that I wasn't anticipating fireworks, and thus was not disappointed whenst fireworks did not ensue.