My Shawshank Redemption

by R.E.D.

"These walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. After long enough, you get so dependent on 'em." Red told the prisoners who have served half of their lifetime inside Shawshank.

We are enclaved in our own prison walls. An addiction for spending till the credit card maxed out. A fetish for news, funny it may seem --a close friend of mine, reads three broadsheets, listen to news three times a day sort of appetizer before the real main course.

For some it is a rare sickness.

I was diagnosed positive with HIV, not so far time ago.  After an occasion of bloodletting drive, I received a phone call urgently requesting me to appear at a health institution's office.

I wish I was deaf the minute the doctor told me the findings. But the words were audible even as my mind dwindled away from my dark past into the unknown future.

I was locked up in my own prison cell -- useless, dysfunctional, futile, of no value to society.

"The first night's the toughest, no doubt about it.. Old life blown away in the blink of an eye... a long cold season in hell stretching out ahead...nothing left but all the time in the world to think about it. Most new fish come close to madness the first night. Somebody always breaks down crying. Happens every time. The only question is, who's it gonna be?"

It's me this time. Call me RED.

Before the news, I watch my bright future as a runner, a marathoner, a triathlete. I watch what I eat, live a clean lifestyle, serve the community through medical mission and just passed, the bloodletting drive, which will change the rest of my life...

I am institutionalized for HIV.

After a time, it donned on me that being HIV positive does not mean living an abnormal life, dying sooner, stopping to care for loved ones, and standing as a problem to the society.

If for anything, this positivism has become my stronghold in living my life to the fullest not just for me but for the people that surround me.

"There are things in this world not carved out of gray stone. That there's a small place inside of us they can never lock away, and that place is called HOPE.. Hope is a good thing, and no good thing ever dies."

The gunshot at the starting line liberates me. I am taking the hopeful route, choosing to do extraordinary things in the race of my lifetime. Run with me..

"LIFE is what you make it, Let us choose to be POSITIVE,"  +redshoe

Help us support KEEP A CHILD ALIVE by providing medications for AIDS patients. Go to http://redshoe27.wordpress.com/ 

To learn more about HIV:

• 
  
  go to positivism.ph
• 
  
  listen to Wanggo Gallaga at youtube
• 
  
  search for Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC)