Comments | apositivevoice: picking open old wounds... part 1

apositivevoice

picking open old wounds... part 1

Apr 24, 2007 13:05

WARNING: This post will probably be long and exceedingly personal. If either makes you feel uncomfortable, read no further. Also, it will be divided probably into 3 parts.

A subject I often avoid or dodge around is my college education. The reason being that it is a very touchy subject with me. Not touchy in the sense that I will kill ( Read more... )

education, college, stigma, past, ignorance, hiv

Comments 6

arien April 24 2007, 21:26:14 UTC

From my experience with colleges, what they fear most is the possibility of lawsuits and bad press. In a sense I can understand why they would give you a single at first, since people in general are ignorant about HIV is transmitted and a new roommate may have been scared to share a bathroom or kitchen with someone who is HIV+, but that's nothing that couldn't have been worked out between you and your future roommates. (Did you always remain in a single your whole time in college? Were you allowed to room with people if they wanted to room with you?) But as for the other reason -- mass panic -- that's complete nonsense. Some parents MAY be dumb enough to remove their kids from school (anyway, aren't most college kids over 18?), but I doubt it would be very many, if any at all. College isn't the same thing as public high school: kids are going to get exposed to things that may make them uncomfortable. That's just the nature of the real world ( ... )

mathwhiz78 April 24 2007, 21:41:49 UTC

Thank you for sharing this. *hugs*

~mike~

starkyld April 24 2007, 22:18:21 UTC

Thank you for sharing this.

djdig April 25 2007, 06:10:21 UTC

Now that I read this, I have a better understanding about what you were going through, regarding just the spacial issues on campus. As you know, my brother is a sophomore at UMass Lowell who lives on campus so I've been to visit the college now.

It still hurts to read about what the said to you. Thank you for reaching out to share this experience.

trope April 25 2007, 17:46:08 UTC

As a health educator, sometimes I feel goofy talking about transmission methods for HIV and what's safe and watching the students roll their eyes. It feels like everyone knows, but this story points out oh so clearly that they do not, or that even when they get the information they've got too much fear or ignorance to let it guide their decisions. Thanks for sharing the story, it's really re-energizing.

And I'm so sorry you had to deal with that hideous nonsense before arriving at college (especially since you'd already cut ties at high school!). I'm interested to hear how the story turns out. Did the college administrators ever see the error of their ways?