So since VoodooChild asked us to write a serious entry about AIDS in honor of yesterday being World AIDS Day... let me attempt to do it during this 15 minute break I'm taking from writing a paper...
AIDS SUCKS...
i've known two people that have had HIV/AIDS my entire life...
the first person was someone who died of "cancer" and who I later found out really died of AIDS complications... in retrospect, watching this man die was probably one of the hardest things i had ever had to witness. while i may not have known he was dying from AIDS, i did know that he was deteriorating and that he was in pain... and most importantly, his family was in the most pain, which is something that i could never want my family to ever feel...
the second person was a man that i knew who had contracted HIV and was going on public tours educating about the disease... i kept in touch with him and he became a mentor to me. he taught me not to be scared of the disease and that life does go on... in fact, 15 years later, he still is alive...
both of these men were Pilipino... this scared me a lot, because as i began to educate myself more and more, i learned that F/Pilipinos have the highest incidents of HIV/AIDS out of ALL asian pacific americans... F/Pilipino account for 34% of all API aids cases in California, with "second place" being the Chinese with 11%. The SCARIEST statistic that i encountered was that the LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH for Filipino males from 25-34 is HIV/AIDS.
i think that this fact scared me the most because I turn 25 in 6 months. And I'm male. and I grew up in California. And most of family is still there...
before this turns into a 20-page paper, i think i'll cut it short, because i think that the facts speak for themselves...
Don't think that you're FREE from acquiring the disease. HIV is pretty colorblind...
At the same time, don't be SCARED of it... Don't NOT get tested because you're scared of getting the results... Believe me, knowing is so worth it. Without getting too personal, getting tested is the SCARIEST feeling in the whole wide world (whether youre sexually active or not), but it is also the most REWARDING feeling at the same time...
Be knowledgeable. Be safe. Be brave.
I'm off my soapbox.
AIDS SUCKS...
i've known two people that have had HIV/AIDS my entire life...
the first person was someone who died of "cancer" and who I later found out really died of AIDS complications... in retrospect, watching this man die was probably one of the hardest things i had ever had to witness. while i may not have known he was dying from AIDS, i did know that he was deteriorating and that he was in pain... and most importantly, his family was in the most pain, which is something that i could never want my family to ever feel...
the second person was a man that i knew who had contracted HIV and was going on public tours educating about the disease... i kept in touch with him and he became a mentor to me. he taught me not to be scared of the disease and that life does go on... in fact, 15 years later, he still is alive...
both of these men were Pilipino... this scared me a lot, because as i began to educate myself more and more, i learned that F/Pilipinos have the highest incidents of HIV/AIDS out of ALL asian pacific americans... F/Pilipino account for 34% of all API aids cases in California, with "second place" being the Chinese with 11%. The SCARIEST statistic that i encountered was that the LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH for Filipino males from 25-34 is HIV/AIDS.
i think that this fact scared me the most because I turn 25 in 6 months. And I'm male. and I grew up in California. And most of family is still there...
before this turns into a 20-page paper, i think i'll cut it short, because i think that the facts speak for themselves...
Don't think that you're FREE from acquiring the disease. HIV is pretty colorblind...
At the same time, don't be SCARED of it... Don't NOT get tested because you're scared of getting the results... Believe me, knowing is so worth it. Without getting too personal, getting tested is the SCARIEST feeling in the whole wide world (whether youre sexually active or not), but it is also the most REWARDING feeling at the same time...
Be knowledgeable. Be safe. Be brave.
I'm off my soapbox.
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