It's World AIDS Day. Again. And I find myself in the soup of emotions that comes with this day every year. Grateful. Relieved. Sad. Inspired. Frustrated. Proud. Resolved. And too many other things to...
For years I accepted my status but still I blamed you and never really forgave. As much as I thought I did forgive by accepting my status, it showed in my actions and my thoughts how I really felt...
As a woman, I know what it feels like to be invisible. As a Black woman that feeling is sometimes intensified. It gets juxtaposed with occasionally being the person everyone is looking at, but not really seeing.
Ever since I was little I have LOVED talking. Being an effective communicator meant that I could get candy, hugs, and laughter. I have always valued this. Now as I’ve gotten older I realize that when...
My birthday month, November, had a great start by doing what I like most, giving my HIV activism a boost. Between 4-7 November I was in Istanbul for a face-to-face 'Skills Training to Empower Patients...
This month Akira, my youngest son of 13 years old, and I travelled to Antwerp for a filmshoot for the 'Undetectable equals Untransmittable' (U=U) campaign in Belgium. Whilst in the train towards...
Dear Destiny, We always make it through. I've dealt with some type of depression since I can remember. It was never anything I couldn't handle though. Then again I never had to handle it alone. I'm...
It's the beginning of fall now, the temperatures are beginning to get chilly and leaves are starting to change their hue. It's a season of change when we bid farewell to summer and all the good times...
My name is Maria Mejia and this is my story with HIV! I kept my HIV diagnosis a secret from almost everyone for nearly 20 years. Diagnosed at 18 in 1991 and contracted HIV at the age of 15 in 1988, I...
It's been almost four years since I contracted HIV. In the back of my mind I've always held onto a little piece of hope. Hope that the man who gave it to me would one day apologize. One day we would...