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Yup'ik Raven This collection of student work is from Frank Keim's classes. He wants to share these works for others to use as an example of culturally-based curriculum and documentation. These documents have been OCR-scanned and are available for educational use only.


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Kerry and her HIV by Mary Jane Shorty

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Kerry and her HIV

I am in my room sitting down and thinking about my past, present, and future, wishing that I could be with all of my friends out there having fun. But all I am doing is remembering the times when I used to have fun before I got the HIV virus.

At the time I was 12 years old. My parents asked me to bring a friend along with us for a couple of days when we went camping. So I asked a boyfriend to come along with us. And I enjoyed all the fun I had with my family and my boyfriend. But that was the very last time I had fun because it was then I got the HIV virus.

After I found out I had the virus, I stayed home every day without having my friends over to my house like the way I used to. Then after getting AIDS I started to wonder how it would have been if I were still living a healthy life? Maybe I wouldn't always be sitting in my room like this and thinking about all the good things that would have happened before.

Every day I look out of my bedroom window and I think of my friends as they walk by my place. But nowadays my friends only ignore me and have their own fun. It's like they don't really care for me after what happened to me. But at least one of my friends seems to really care for me and tries to understand what is going on in my life. And my parents care and understand for me. Once they told me that I should still always do what is right and keep from doing bad things.

As I think about my past, I wonder why I did some things that I wasn't supposed to do. Then I start to think about the things I'd be doing and the fun I'd have if I had a long life ahead of me. And I think of my friends and my family.

During my spare time I go to the school to talk to the students about the consequences of having unprotected sex, and doing drugs and alcohol. I paid for it big myself by getting HIV and AIDS.

Right now I don't feel very good. My friends don't really care for me, and they even ignore me. But sometimes when I'm tired of being inside I go out for a walk or I go to see my one friend who seems to care for me and talks to me. It makes me feel better when I talk to her. She cheers me up when I'm down.

Mary Jane Shorty

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