finding balance

“I still have a dream,” said Martin Luther King, “it is deeply rooted in the American Dream.”

Disclosing my HIV status is usually one of the first things I do when I meet people. I mean, it's not like, "Hey, my name is Ci Ci and I have HIV!" Nah. It's more like, if I begin to see that person...

I have been living with HIV for more than 12 years. Still to this day it baffles me when people try to use this as a reason to insult me. I must admit often times, more than not, I forget about it.

I had a situation that happened a few years ago that I don't think I've quite healed from.

The lights have come out all over town, in the department stores, on the city lampposts, and in homes and yards across the country. How I used to love those lights, along with everything else that made the holidays festive: annoying dinners with family, shopping in crowded stores, and watching memorized Christmas specials… but it was still special.

Hugging - It’s so simple, it’s free, it just requires you to stretch out your arms and squeeze!

It is funny how one day you wake up and feel like everything has changed. You, the world around you, the people you know; everything. Looking out of the window to the door you once stepped out of...

Where do I start with this year of lessons and so much pain? 2018 started ok, although I never expected it to be so so hard, and I never thought that I would ever be this strong…but I am.

I must be honest, it’s been 26 years since high school and boy it’s been hard. Essays today are nothing like essays back when I went to school. We didn’t learn pathos, logos, ethos. We didn’t need to...

In just a few days I will turn 50. Years. Old. I have to spell it out like that mostly because it’s hard to fully comprehend. I realize that I am not the first to feel this way. In fact, more and more of us (women living with HIV) are doing it. It’s nuts really. And awesome.