Here I am sitting on my porch thinking about the past and wishing that I could turn back time and fix the mistake that I made. But I was only 14 years old and at that time I was popular and a lot of boys liked me. Every time I had a date with a boy I would always have sex with him to please him, so they would always ask me to go out on a date, until I went out with this new boy who had HIV virus and I didn't know about

it. While the virus was destroying my immune system I finally found out that the boy had HIV. I was very scared so I went to the hospital for a blood test. When the doctor told me I had HIV I started crying, and I was so angry at that boy but I couldn't do anything about it because I already had the virus. After the other students found out about me they quit hanging out with me, and the boys quit asking me out. The only friends I had were my family and, of course, my best friend who coaxed me out of thinking about the virus and to make some goals for my short life. After I graduated from high school, I went to college for only one year because I kept getting sick and having to go to the hospital all the time. Then for a couple years I visited different high schools and talked to teens about AIDS, what it had done to my life and how it could affect their futures.

Every time I went out on a date with a boy I would tell him that I had AIDS, and I would get tired of their face changes. One day, though, I went out with this guy who had AIDS and we had a lot in common, so we started seeing each other and got married a couple months later. But four months after we were married my husband passed away, and I felt very lonely and hardly went out. A few months after that when I looked in a mirror I finally noticed I was getting skinny and pale. But I always tried not to think of dying and to go on with my life.

My advice to young teens is to use protection while having sex and be a lot more careful if you want to live a long life.