The summer I was 19. It was fall, 1989. Life was simple living in a small rural community in the eastern United States. I got into a routine. I slept during the day, worked at night. I was looking for...
This April will be my 25th year anniversary living with HIV. The last 2 years of living with HIV have been the hardest for me and many do not know this. I don’t like to show or tell people when I feel...
Thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of the photo shoot. I didn't really think I would get anything out of it. It would be more for the public than for me. I was so unbelievably wrong. The...
I have kind of “mixed-feelings” with the virus. At one hand, it had ebbed away my life, at other it gave me a new lease of life, with new meaning, and more importantly, the new “ME”. The scars on my...
I am a retired RN and 58 years old. I was diagnosed in July 2002 while I was living in a battered women's shelter in Winston-Salem, NC. The person who infected me was my boyfriend of two years. He...
For weeks now I have been fighting depression. Sinking slowly down a dark, lonely and miserable hole feeling hopeless. In my head I have thoughts of, "Why am I here? I have no dreams anymore, no...
Today was my eighth anniversary with HIV. I was diagnosed in a small town doctor’s office, all alone and terrified, eight years ago today. It was the first time that I don’t remember crying when the...
When I look in the mirror, I hate everything about you. You are fat and ugly! You've got pimples all over your face and your teeth are crooked. Nobody is going to want you. Ha-ha! They're talking...
Everyone asks me what’s my secret behind my proactivity in life. How do I manage to work 9 hours a day in office, yet find time for friends? How do I balance my official work to that of Activism? How...
Remember that the beautiful butterfly was once a cocoon. There is hope as long as there is life