“When I turned 18 I met an Englishman who had recently opened a bar. He asked me to work for him and for the first time in my life I felt that I belonged somewhere. I was working day and night but never before I had been so happy. Finally I had a purpose. After a few months a client offered me my first line of cocaine. In the next month they offered me more. I was using cocaine every night. I had no idea about the consequences of drugs. Until one night that I hadn’t been using which made me feel extremely tired. That is when I realized that I couldn’t function in the bar without drugs. One month later the bar went bankrupt and I had nowhere to go. Meanwhile I had fallen in love with a Colombian man. I was using cocaine and he was a dealer. When I lost my job he asked me if I was interested in making a trip to Colombia to smuggle drugs. I wasn’t aware of any danger, really I had no idea. I smuggled drugs for him a few times and everything went well until I got arrested in France while I was pregnant with his child. I was handcuffed to the bed while I gave birth to my daughter. The mother of my best friend picked up my daughter when she was 10 months old and adopted her. In this french prison I had no access to drugs. When I got out I was clean but I always say that when getting clean is not your own choice it doesn’t count because for you will use again. The moment I arrived in Amsterdam, drugs was the first thing on my mind. I had nowhere to go so I went straight to the “Red light district”. Slowly I started using heroin and became a prostitute.“ (2/5)

“You know how some people feel about their children being the smartest, brightest, most beautiful creatures?”
“Yes..”
“Well, that’s how I feel about my dog.”

“My dear let me tell you a secret. Take it from someone who is 90 years old. There is nothing scary about getting older. It’s only scary when you try to fight it.”

(2/2)“When I heard I was HIV-positive I didn’t cry. Neither did my world collapse. The first thing that went through my mind was, now I have this label attached to me and I’m never getting rid of it. I will always be the one who is HIV-positive. The second thing that went through my mind was the concern that I might infected someone else. The first person I called after I found out was a friend who is also a colleague of mine. Her first reaction was: ’‘I will be here for you! No matter what, I still love you.” Those words hit me hard and I started to cry for the first time. Three months have passed I feel really good. Of course I’m devastated that I have this virus but at the same time I’m not an unhappy person. Finding happiness is something I have fought for my entire life. When I found out I was HIV-positive it hit me hard. The first weeks I cried a lot but now I’m getting my life back on the road. I have a wonderful job, great friends and supportive parents. I’m open about it because I find it important to be honest and I hate lying. I have decided to take matters into my own hands and I won’t let the HIV define me or determine my happiness.“

(½) “In a previous relationship I made the mistake of having unprotected sex. I met a really nice guy a few months ago and because our relationship started to get more serious I wanted to make sure I didn’t have an STD. I made a doctors appointment to get tested on a Friday. Wednesday morning after I got tested I received a phone call from the doctor’s assistant. She asked if I could come over that same day. Because I work on Wednesdays I asked her if I could come over on Friday, which is my day off. I kept having this terrible anxiety so I decided to leave work early that day to go and get my test results. I was sitting in the doctor’s office and I felt something was wrong. I kept thinking I might be pregnant. Then the doctor asked: ’‘Do you have any idea why you are here?” I told her I was expecting the worst. Then the doctor said: There is no good way to tell you this but you are HIV-positive.“