2,557 Days

Submitted on Aug 14, 2025 by Cupcake80

🌅2,557 Days🦋

🕯️
I don't remember the coma.
I remember the waking.

I remember the sterile light.
The machines.
The quiet storm of medical voices around me.

And I remember hearing the words that would change everything:

"You have HIV. HIV3 to be exact."

That's what they said—HIV3.
I didn't even know what that meant.

It would take weeks of recovery,
months of questions,
and years of unlearning before I understood:

💔 HIV3 meant AIDS. 💔

No one explained it.
No one softened it.

I had to go find the truth on my own—
and then learn how to live with it.

It took me nearly three years to say it out loud:
I live with AIDS.

But I say it now with power.
With pride.
With purpose.

🌈✨🌈

⋆✩☀︎ A Life Reborn ☀︎✩⋆

2,557 Days Later

This week marks seven years since that moment—
since I came back from the edge of death,
cracked open by a diagnosis I never saw coming.

In those 2,557 days, I have done what many said I wouldn't.

💪 I've lived.
💗 I've healed.
🩹 I've stumbled—
and gotten back up.

I've rebuilt a relationship with my body.
I've learned to trust my intuition.

I've faced grief, heartbreak, stigma, and silence—
and still, I kept going.

🌿 I became a grandmother.
🌕 I deepened my spiritual journey.
💑 I found a partner who loves me through it all.
🗣️ And I started telling my story—
so other women living with HIV wouldn't have to suffer in the dark like I once did.

🕊️⋆｡°✩ 💌 ⋆｡°✩🕊️

💫🖊️Full-Circle Moment🖊️💫

A New Chapter Begins

This week, on the exact anniversary of my awakening,
I signed a contract that feels like a full-circle moment:

🖊️✨ I'm now a contributing blogger for A Girl Like Me,
a global blog by and for women living with HIV.

After years of being silenced, stigmatized, and almost forgotten,
I'm stepping into a space where my voice is medicine.

This isn't just about writing—
it's about reaching the woman who's just been diagnosed and doesn't know what comes next.

It's about holding space for the woman who's afraid to say "HIV/AIDS" out loud.

It's about reminding us all:

We are still here.
We are still worthy.
And we are not alone. 💖

❃✧Healing is Resistance✧❃

This Is What Survival Looks Like

I used to think survival meant just breathing.
Now I know—

Survival means choosing to show up
in a world that told you not to.

So today, I write.
🫶 For myself.
💌 For every woman who's still finding her voice.
🕊️ And for the girl I used to be—
who needed to know this life was still possible.

ꕥ✩🌙 She Rises 🌙✩ꕥ

📝 I Didn't Die

By Cupcake — For Every Girl Like Me

🕯️
I didn't die—
Though my body broke
Under years of weight
And silence spoke

I didn't die—
Though shame ran deep
And stigma tried
To make me weak

I didn't die—
Though fear was loud
And HIV
Was wrapped in shroud

I didn't die.
I rose instead.
I learned to live.
I faced the dread.

I didn't die.
I grew my voice.
I built my peace.
I made a choice.

I didn't die—
And now I write
For every girl
Who stays up nights

I didn't die.
And neither will you.
There's power here—
In living true.

🌼💫🌼

🪷 To the girl I was:
We made it. 💞