My dear friend Jonathan. Your illness will not run its course your illness will start to get worse and it will hurt it will not be easy The pain will not go away and things will start to fail. Please reconsider this avenue as it is not going to be a painless one.

I am a better person for it. Only was sad in the beginning, then I thought I would handle it just like anything else. It is there, I know it is, but it doesn't rule over my life. Now I take better care of myself also.

At first I have to say I was very BITTER knowing I had brought this on myself. After several therapy sessions and realizing I am not a piece of bio-hazard material I have come to the reality I am the same person as before. It is a medical condition and as long as I am compliant I feel as though I can live a somewhat normal life.

It may have played some part in my becoming more aware & taking better care of my whole self, integrating the..physical. mental. emotional .spiritual. but major life events always seed our growth. So I don't give HIV any particular credit. I might have gained the same awareness after a heart attack or stroke or birth of a child or getting a PHd or winning the lottery. Life is a collection of experiences. HIV is but one of many experiences on my journey. But its by no means a gift! It is what it is. I have no judgement around it. I think of it the same way you would a root canal. Tooth pain! Dentist pain! And it's inconvenient as hell! And I have never heard of a "Root Canal Survivors Support Group"! My focus is on grace & joy!

HIV makes you a special person, it forces you to have everything tested every 3 months and you know what status your health is in. I think it has made me a better person in this regard. I was very worried about my health and now I don't.

El vih te hace ser una persona especial te obliga a hacerte análisis de todo cada 3 meses y sabes en que status esta tu salud creo que me ha echo mejor persona al respecto yo era muy dejado de mi salud y ahora no