December 2001
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In all the world, there is no one exactly like me.
Because I alone choose who I am.
I own everything about me.
I own my body, my feelings, my attitudes, my actions, all of my decisions.
Whether they be towards myself or others I own them.
I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, and, yes, even the fears.
I own my triumphs and my successes and I own the responsibility for all my failures and my mistakes. I alone own what becomes of me, I alone accept the responsibility for me being HIV/AIDS.
I can become intimately acquainted with myself.
By doing so I can be friendly with myself, and even love myself.
But as long as I am friendly and loving to myself I can courageously and honesty look for ways to find out more about me.
However I may look and sound, whatever I say and do, whatever I think and feel at any given moment in time is authentically me.
If later there are looks, thoughts or feelings that turn out to be unfitting just for me, I can discard those that I do not want and keep the rest, and I can invent something new from those which I discarded.
As long as I can see, hear, feel and think, I own the tools to survive.
Survive. I own the tools to become a better person. I own the tools to be productive. I own the tools to make sense and order out of this disease. With these tools I own, I can always accept me, as I will always strive to be better me. For I own all of me.