For some reason whenever I have a homework assignment, anything other than actually doing the homework sounds appealing. ANYTHING. Is there laundry to be done? Well today’s the day to wash it. Is there a long lost friend who deserves a letter via snail mail? Today’s the day to write it. Does the toilet look a little dull? Today’s got to be the day to bleach it. (Finally spring break is here, and I can catch up on some homework-Blog to write?)
So to back track, on a rare day that I actually got to school early-to study for a very important test- I see a bus for FREE HIV TESTING.
“Why the hell not?” I ask myself. I’ve got an hour to kill and only two weeks to wait. I am the only person at 11 a.m. in the line so I am eagerly ushered onto the bus.
“How many people have you slept with?”
“Have you ever shared drugs with somebody?”
“When was the last time you’ve had sex? Vaginal? Anal? Oral?”
“So, why are you here today?”
These answers will remain anonymous except to Dave, my only counsel through the next 20 minutes (note to everyone reading-the results from a test on a bus take a lot less time than anywhere else).
In an attempt to answer the one question from my friends, family, and teachers,
“Josie, why would you ever take that test?”
I decided to do some research, so for all of you wondering the same, here you go:
The Center for Disease Control, CDC, has estimated that there are one million people living with HIV in the United States.
21% (one in five) of people living with HIV are UNAWARE they have HIV.
The highest number of cases in the U.S. is in California, New York, FLORIDA and Texas.
Jacksonville ranks just below Miami for highest number of cases in Florida.
If that information is not enough for you to understand why I decided to take the three steps and 20 minutes out of my way, then maybe this will convince you.
Instead of giving you a name to get your results, they give you a number. The bus had been open for three hours. I was number two.
Twenty minutes later there were only two more girls, numbers 3 and 4. When I glanced at them I couldn’t help myself from asking the same questions I had been asked.
“What are their reasons for being here?”
But don’t I already know the answer? Just to be sure, right? Is there any other reason? How could you not want to know? What if you didn’t know? And why were there no men on this bus?
According to the CDC, males accounted for 3 out of 4 AIDS diagnoses in the U.S.
Why is it that women are always left to pick up the pieces? Are we the only ones who really want to know? Am I being totally biased in asking this?
I have absolutely no answers to any of my questions.
Someone once said to me, “It hurts like hell when you fall, but it hurts even worse not to get back up again.”
With that in mind, the only thing I know with any certainty from my experience is this: Be careful when walking off a giant bus surrounded by peers with the words FREE HIV TESTING written on the side. There is no graceful way to stand up from a face plant that high…so much for anonymity.
