“I’d say the thing that’s cool is that after educating myself, family, and friends, I realized I’m not different than anybody else - I don’t need special attention - it doesn’t get me down anymore. Before I thought I was lost, damaged goods, nobody’s going to want me; I’m never going to have a family of my own; nobody’s ever going to want to spend the rest of their life with me; I’ll never get married; nobody’s ever going to want to have sex with me again. But that’s just not true. I created stigmas in my own brain about what I thought life was going to be like with this. It’s going to be seven years on December 7, so really life has gone back to normal. I don’t even think about being HIV positive. Really the only time I think of it is when I fill my pillbox for the week - it has no effect on my daily life now.” (3/4)