Living a Normal Life with HIV

Being a teenager in the 1980's (yes, I know I am admitting my age), AIDS was something that was taken seriously by my generation. Does that mean that my peers were always careful? No, the number of unwed teenage mothers in my graduating class proves that many were not careful. Yet, we were still fearful of AIDS.

Why wouldn't we be fearful? We heard about it constantly. It was on the news. We saw the pictures of the poor victims of the disease. We all knew how they got it and we knew how they were going to live; how they were going to possibly die.

Now years later, we don't hear as much about AIDS or HIV (the virus that can led to AIDS). We all know that people are living with HIV. We all know that now there are people who have had this virus (HIV) for twenty years. They are alive.

Since they are alive, does that means HIV is not a hindrance in their lives. In some ways, it doesn't hinder their lives. They can lead productive lives. But can they lead a normal life? Now you may start arguing the point of what is normal and start getting all intellectual on me. But you know what normal is and what normal isn't. Normal is being able to live without thinking about this virus you have, even if the thought is just a subconscious one.

Could you just stop for a moment and think about the life of a person who is living with HIV.

Let’s say the person is a female, named Leslie. Leslie is twenty-seven years old. She has had the virus for ten years. She acquired it the usual way from sex.