"Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined." –Toni Morrison. When I ran across this quote I felt it was appropriate to tie into what I experienced during this year's AIDSWATCH, because it defined my six years of HIV living with me. At this year's conference I celebrated six years of being told I was HIV positive and reaching the undetectable = untransmittable status. So this year's AIDSWATCH for me was sentimental. I celebrated by reflecting on my first AIDSWATCH I attended in 2016 where I shared my story openly with a bunch of strangers and decided to not be the victim but be the...
LaWanda37's blog
I think Eleanor Roosevelt said it best when she said this about confidence "You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself I lived through the horror. I can take the next thing that comes along."
Growing up in a small rural North Carolina town, I grew up listening to artists like Sam Cooke. The lyrics from one of his songs describe the hope that my advocacy work is a contribution to change. “Like the river I’ve been running ever since”. Looking back, the past four years of my life are best described by these lyrics. For me this past April celebrated a milestone for me celebrating being HIV positive - untransmittable and undetectable. Four years ago I was in a dark place that caused me to be extremely depressed. Now four years forward I can look back and look at the progress I have made...
This blog is dedicated to my best friend sister, Nichelle Daniel. While walking through the mall with my best friend (sister) for twenty or more years, we were talking about the importance of taking care of you to remain healthy. She reminded me while yes, it is important to eat healthy, have daily exercise, and keep up with my daily regimen, that taking care of my outside was important to. I had to admit that I have been neglecting myself and she knows she is the only one that is able to get away with calling me out on it. What I am trying to say is many of us who have been newly diagnosed...
It was not until the ADAP conference that I realized how important support is when getting adjusted to living with HIV. When I was newly diagnosed with HIV, having support played a huge role in my adjusting to my new life and the way I see things. Not only does a person living with HIV need support from family and friends to transitioning into their life with medication, they also need mental health services that are not only affordable but also culturally diverse. Having mental health services that are supportive and having supportive family and friends plays a huge part in how a person...
Life for me and how I saw the world changed three years ago in April 2015. I remember it like it was yesterday. I had just put my pre-k students on the bus to go home, when I came back to my classroom and checked my phone (a habit of mine to make sure my teenaged daughter or my sister had not texted me). Instead of my usual notification I had a voice mail notification. It was my doctor who left a message to call her back. Not thinking anything of it because I had went to the doctor the week before because I wasn’t feeling well thinking that it was probably my sinuses. Instead I got the most...
I have been HIV positive for three years this past April. The way I found out has changed my whole life and I am definitely not the same person I was three years ago.