Sebastian Maniscalco brings
the laughs to Paws
Arts , page 16
Jarrel Smith and the Tigers
topped Hampton Saturday
Sports, page 24
Surviving, thriving with HIV
At 19 years old , senior
Allie Reitz learned of
her illness; now works
to raise awareness
Blake Savadow/77ie Towerlight
Towson senior Allie Reitz was diagnosed with HIV when she was 19 years old. Since then, she has dedicated much of her life to rais¬
ing awareness of the illness and helping those infected. She will speak on campus as part of the World AIDS Day events on Dec. 1 .
Nick DiMarco
Senior Editor
Allie Reitz was just 19 years old when she
was told she was HIV-positive.
She remembers the day, down to the min¬
ute.
It was Sept. 23, 2002 at 8:45 a.m., just days
after a routine OB/GYN check-up, that a doc¬
tor delivered the life-changing news.
"Her words shot at me like bullets I couldn’t
dodge," the Towson senior said.
“[The doctor] said it’s going to be 20 years
or more. My
mom took that
as after 20 years
there’s this end
of the world...
and Allie’s life
is over at 40. It
was an ongoing
shock."
Six years later,
just weeks shy of
her 25th birthday, Reitz has become a moti¬
vational speaker doing community outreach
work at the University of Maryland School of
Medicine — her "No. 1 priority."
She is scheduled to speak for World AIDS
Day at Towson on Monday, Dec. 1.
"I want to challenge people’s ideals about
what we think about individuals. They don’t
all have to be skinny with sunken faces, a
junkie or an ex-prostitute," she said.
“I want people to know that it is possible
for people to live well with HIV and the impor¬
tance of testing. I choose to find happiness
within myself. I choose to say yes to life. That
in and of itself is a guarantee to wellness."
At her speech, Reitz also plans to read a
poem she penned, titled "Identity, Morality
and Me."
Her goal for her speech is to "push people’s
boundaries."
A single question that she is asked most
often has partly spurred on her mission.
"We need to think about how we act and
what kind of questions we ask people. Should
we even ask that in the first place - 'How’d
you get it?”' Reitz said, admitting that it hurts
to hear.
She gives examples of those who were bom
with the virus and others who were drug
users.
"Most people don’t believe I’m HIV-positive
because I look like the girl next door," she
said.
"I struggle, I really, really struggle. I make it
look easy but it’s not. I struggle with it every¬
day when I take my medicine... I struggle with
it when I come home and eat with my mom
and in my personal life," Reitz added. "I’m on
a mission to let other people know that I’m
going to keep going.”
The Towson senior has come a long way
from believing that she was a "failure" to
where she is today.
"I think it’s a life choice to not even go
there for me. It’s taken a long time for me to
get there. And for a long time I did [blame
myself]," she said.
"I felt like I was going to die or that I might
have a life expectancy of 40. 1 had those visions
of myself, frail, lying in a hospital bed, after
watching Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington
in 'Philadelphia.’ We’ve all seen those images,
but I’m not that image."
See HIV, page 15
Hear more of
Allie Reitz’s
inspirational story
in a video
interview at
TheTowerlight.com
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