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The first time I acted like a complete f*cking as*hole

6th July 2015 By Jonelle

I was 16 years old the first time an openly HIV positive person touched me.

I was at a party and this particular person, a friend (let’s call him Dave) asked me to go with him to get something out his car. It was all very innocent, we needed a CD that we wanted to listen to at another friends car. When we got to the car, his window had been smashed. Obviously Dave was really upset. He was 18 and his car had just been broken into. We got into the car and saw that the radio had been stolen. He was gutted. Turns out he had saved for months to put that radio in.

He sat there, in the driver seat, upset and I sat there, silently in the passenger’s seat, not really knowing what to say. It felt like an hour had passed but in reality it was only a few minutes. Maybe 3 at most. And then it happened.

Dave, leaned over and put his head on my lap and sobbed.

The first time I acted like a complete asshole | Tyranny of Pink

What did I do?

I leaned back and lifted my hands in the air like I was going to somehow catch AIDS in this moment, in that car.

He stopped crying and looked at me. I will NEVER forget the look on his face. Heartbroken and hurt. So much more pain filled his eyes than had been there a second ago over the loss of his radio.

I immediately apologised. Let me tell you it’s not an easy thing to say sorry for. What words do you use? Sorry I reacted like an asshole because I’ve never known an HIV positive person before and I didn’t think about what I was doing so yes, I’m a total fucking asshole?

He just looked at me.

We stopped being friends that day. It makes me sad to think about it but I understand. That also happens to be the day of my life that I look back on with the most regret and shame.

Obviously I learnt a lot from that moment. Including the bias and prejudice that people are faced with on a daily basis. I have since learnt so much more about HIV/AIDS than I knew then. I’ve known many many more people who are living with the virus and I’ve learnt that you don’t have to treat people any differently to how you would if there weren’t.

The biggest lesson of all

Most of all – I learnt the power of being an insensitive FUCK. And I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for the way I behaved, I’m sorry our friendship ended because of my complete ignorance and I’m sorry that people in this day and age are STILL living with the stigma and being treated like this.

The first time I acted like a complete asshole | Tyranny of Pink

It says a lot more about us as individuals and the ignorant lives we live, than it does about the person carrying the virus.

No one should ever be treated like this. Not for anything and yet on a daily basis people are judged and treated as somehow less than because of their HIV status, because of their sexual preference, because of their race, because of factors that really have nothing to do with anything really.

I don’t have a lot of regrets in my life but this one is definitely at the top of the list!

 Lesson of the day? Just don’t be an asshole!

Jonelle |Tyranny of Pink


Have you ever had a similar experience? I’d love to hear about how you dealt with the situation and if you would do anything differently if you could go back? 

Filed Under: Blog, Social Issues Tagged With: acceptance, being a complete asshole to other people, How not to be an asshole, I learnt my lesson, lessons, life choices, living with stigma, the stigma of HIV

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Shan Vijendranath (@youbabyandi) says

    7th July 2015 at 2:02 pm

    I actually have a list of people I want to send this post too. Lol! Newbie on here… 🙂 Great blog!

    • TyrannyofPink says

      7th July 2015 at 2:04 pm

      Awesome!! Thanks Shan! Better late than never 😉

  2. Single Mother Ahoy says

    7th July 2015 at 10:22 am

    This is a great post. I think the fact you instantly knew you’d reacted badly shows you’re not all that bad! It’s hard when there’s so little real mention or education about it. People don’t understand unless they actually meet a person who’s positive and don’t catch it!
    Thanks for linking up with the weekend blog hop!

    • TyrannyofPink says

      7th July 2015 at 11:59 am

      Thank you Vicky! I hadn’t ever thought of it like that so I really appreciate the comment. It is extremely hard when you aren’t taught what the right thing is to do or say in those situations. Swaziland (where I come from) has the highest HIV rate in the world and yet people are still so completely ignorant about it. It’s such an important thing that needs to be talked about not only to prevent the stigma but also to stop the infection rate.

      I really appreciate you taking the time to visit my blog.
      xx

  3. ella says

    6th July 2015 at 10:10 am

    Deep! Most people don’t learn from their assholeyness so good on you 🙂

    • TyrannyofPink says

      6th July 2015 at 10:12 am

      Thank you! I’m glad this happened to me I suppose because it changed everything… I wouldn’t want people to treat me like this so now I know better.

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