A long time ago, I cut a headline out of a magazine and hung it on my bedroom wall. It said simply in dark black print: These are the good old days.
It's always made me smile, but just recently I've begun to realize that I've grown up to the point where that is true for me. These are indeed the good old days.
We attend an excellent university with a Wheaties-worthy, legendary football coach and some of the best people this side of Altoona. Folks, look around you; forget all of the weekend drama of who drunkenly hooked up with whose boyfriend/girlfriend/pet and smell the roses. Life is good.
The parties and the potential aren't the only things our age box (18-25: check here) has going for it these days. In fact, we're at the top of the chart for growing cases of HIV/AIDS. Wait, you mean to tell me that condom co-ops and the super controversial Sex Faire aren't ultimately solving our problems? People are still getting infected? Sadly, yes -- and at an extremely rapid rate. As great as those two programs are, we still need more.
Home sweet Pennsylvania is currently placed sixth for reported cases in the United States, according to the Center for Disease Control. That is sixth, not including the one in three persons with the virus who don't know that they're infected. I'm sure you've heard it all before. The numbers are mind-boggling. I'd be willing to bet
that not one of you reading this can honestly say you don't know someone (or know someone who knows someone) who had or currently has HIV or AIDS.
While sitting at lunch the other day with some friends, we were discussing just how widespread AIDS has become among our peers. It's a pretty scary thought.
You'd think with the "sexual health" umbrella the university pushes, HIV/AIDS testing would be more encouraged. We're told not to be ashamed of sex, but the possible consequences of pregnancy or a sexually transmitted disease (STD) are some of the most socially unaccepted situations for high school and college students across the country, no matter how careful they were.
Eventually, we were all stumped on why HIV/AIDS testing clinics aren't as common on college campuses as blood drives. Both procedures, in essence, save lives.
I came home and began digging to find out what exactly the deal was. To my surprise, free confidential HIV/AIDS testing is available on campus through Penn State's University Health Services (UHS).
The entire visit is usually no longer than 30 minutes and those daunting blood tests are no longer required to test for the virus.
Instead, they place a small toothbrush-like device between your lower cheek and gums for two minutes. That's it. Send it to the labs, have the sample checked for HIV antibodies, and in less than 3 weeks (quicker if you pay a fee) your test results are in. The free services even include pre- and post- test counseling. Furthermore, students are able to volunteer in several different ways through the UHS Web site, another thing I'd never heard or known.
So if it's so available and easy, why isn't a big deal around here? Penn State students aren't immune to HIV, nor are they all abstaining from sexual activities. Readily available birth control and condoms are only half the battle. Testing is the other.
The frequent blood drives offer incentives for coming in and giving blood, so why not assign a week in the school year to be HIV/AIDS Testing Week? It could coincide with World AIDS Day, a designated day each year to pay special attention to HIV and AIDS as a real world problem. Hand out flyers with information. Be those annoying people who clutter the walkways between classes and force a pamphlet into your hand. Set up a table to schedule appointments. Encourage whole groups to go get tested even if they have no reason to suspect.
Even unprotected oral sex can possibly transmit the HIV virus, so that not-so-seemingly-risky behavior is reason enough to be checked.
HIV and AIDS aren't something to be happy about, but they're not something to be ashamed of either.
As the society we shape becomes more and more accepting of human sexuality, it must also become more accepting of and prepared for certain results. As a representative of the most rapidly growing group of the virus' victims, I feel it necessary to know my options, and to let all of you know yours. After all, it could save our lives.
