Our Journey as a discordant couple- Penny 25

“We instantly clicked and fell in love…”

I always thought love was a force to be reckoned with. Then I met Alex, and we both found ourselves drawn towards each other. We instantly clicked and fell in love… head over heels in love. Immediately after we started dating, I told him about my status and that I was HIV positive. With this, we began our journey as a discordant couple.

“How it started.”

I knew I was HIV positive from childhood. I have come to terms with my status. I am positively living my life the best way possible and eating life with a big spoon. Alex, a kind and adventurous man, is an engineer by profession. From the moment we met, we have been inseparable. When we first started speaking, I was worried about telling him about my status. Would he understand? Would he want anything to do with me? I decided to be candid and tell him my status, revealing my HIV-positive status and laying it all out. To my surprise, Alex's response was a caring and heartwarming show of genuine empathy. He embraced me with unwavering support and told me that this was not an issue for him.

“Armed with knowledge.”

Despite Alex's acceptance, we faced a lot of opposition from friends and family who did not understand why he would want to be with me. Knowledge is power, and we were armed with knowledge of ART (Anti-Retroviral Therapy) and PrEP (Pre-exposure prophylaxis). With this, we were able to educate ourselves on the misconceptions of the virus. Our relationship continued to flourish, and we celebrated milestones with each other. We soon discovered the strength that came from knowing each other to lean on.

“Stronger together”

We are still going strong and love the people who are together. We continue to share our dreams and hopes with each other. Promising we will be honest and truthful to one another. We didn’t let the hate or the judgment seep into what had blossomed and actively worked on. We continued taking our respective drugs, keeping each other accountable and planning and looking forward to our future together.