When I was diagnosed, the thing that I remember most was how hard it was to tell my family – not because I was afraid they would reject me, but because we had already lost my oldest brother to AIDS a few years earlier. With my family's love and the love of my friends, I just celebrated my 50th birthday.

I never doubted that I would live this long. Like others who live with this disease, I have learned that every day I am given is a gift I didn't earn, and the only way I can pay back that gift is to live my dreams and be of service to others.

Since my diagnosis, I have followed my many dreams, like owning a bookstore, hiking and photographing over 20 national parks, earning my private pilot's license, racing sailboats, and writing a novel. Check and check. I keep a long list of goals and dreams, and I plan on achieving every one of them.

Before he died, my brother Bobby taught me to always live with an open heart… to always allow for the magic of love. That has been tough at times, and I have had my heart broken more than once. But living that way means walking a path of vulnerability, honesty, and integrity. I feel like I owe him that, and I owe it to all the other friends that I have loved and lost to HIV.

I hope I live to see a cure. On that day I will make a toast to Bobby's memory, and I hope I can tell him that I have lived with enough life and love for the both of us.

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