I avoided looking in mirrors and walking past store fronts. It wasn't me in the reflection but HIV.

One morning almost a year ago, I had the courage to wake up and look in the mirror. There I discovered something I hadn't noticed before. It was me. I had not changed. I cast away the stigma that I adopted when I was diagosed as HIV positive.

Although I can look at my reflection - I see that day by day I am stronger. I am not who I was a few years back. I may have lost a little more weight, and have a few strands of gray hair that I call stress but when I see my image I see someone who has taking this disease and called it my own. It is there in the mirror. It is there in those store fronts and will we in every picture that will be taken of me from this day forward.

I can't avoid what is staring back. It's me.

Sent via Email February 20, 2006, from USA.