Meet Chelsea
Chelsea was the girl next door. She attended college but didn't live the typical college life. The development of life-long friendships, involvement in sororities and attending parties were not part of Chelsea's college experience. Instead, was attended her classes, worked to pay the bills and played wife to a man who would late bring heartbreak to her life. Chelsea met the man of her dreams and quickly fell in love. He became her love, life, and world. Soon after meeting, Chelsea moved in with her partner to what she believed would be the perfect life. The comfort of a stable relationship and an HIV negative test result gave her the mindset that unsafe sex was okay in the relationship. It was clear now that she put her life into his hands. As do many relationships, it began to break apart and soon after the relationship ended a close friend revealed to Chelsea that her partner had been unfaithful to her. Chelsea made the difficult decision of moving out and ending the relationship. The years of isolation and playing house had left Chelsea alone with very few friendships. In light of the news of the cheating, Chelsea and her partner went to get another HIV test. Assuming nothing, she walked out of the clinic with the test in the back of her mind. Weeks went by and on a summer afternoon Chelsea received the results that would forever change her life. She found out she was HIV positive and six weeks pregnant. Devastated, alone and sure that her life was over, Chelsea now had to deal with being an HIV positive woman in today's harsh world. The news of both test results was almost too much to bear. After extensive research on perinatal transmission, Chelsea chose to keep her baby. She knew that she could have an HIV negative baby with the proper medication. Chelsea didn't have time to cope with the news and felt the shame immediately. She became an advocate for herself and accessed and received medical and support services. Today Chelsea is a HIV positive mother with a healthy, beautiful HIV negative son. As an advocate in her community and across the nation, she strives to educate youth and is an inspiration to mothers and women. "Today I share my story with everyone. I'm no longer afraid of the shame and I will wear HIV on my face so you will never have to wear HIV on yours!"
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