Ryan White Quotations

AIDS can destroy a family if you let it, but luckily for my sister and me, Mom taught us to keep going. Don't give up, be proud of who you are, and never feel sorry for yourself.

We had great faith that with patience, understanding, and education, that my family and I could be helpful in changing their minds and attitudes around.

Given six months to live and being the fighter that I am, I set high goals for myself.

I was labeled a troublemaker, my mom an unfit mother, and I was not welcome anywhere.

My family and I held no hatred for those people because we realized they were victims of their own ignorance.

My name is Ryan White. I am sixteen years old. I have hemophilia, and I have AIDS.

Entertainers, athletes, and stars started giving me support.

Twice a week I would receive injections or IV's of Factor VIII which clotted the blood and then broke it down.

Because of the lack of education on AIDS, discrimination, fear, panic, and lies surrounded me.

I believe in myself as I look forward to graduating from Hamilton Heights High School in 1991.

Most recently my battle has been against AIDS and the discrimination surrounding it.

Listening to medical facts was not enough. People wanted one hundred percent guarantees.

Rumors of sneezing, kissing, tears, sweat, and saliva spreading AIDS caused people to panic.

This brought on the news media, TV crews, interviews, and numerous public appearances.

A lot of my time was spent searching, thinking and planning my life.

I came face to face with death at thirteen years old.

Even at church, people would not shake my hand.

Eventually, I won the right to attend school, but the prejudice was still there.

How could these people in the public eye not be afraid of me, but my whole town was?

I received thousands of letters of support from all around the world, all because I wanted to go to school.

Mayor Koch, of New York, was the first public figure to give me support.

People would get up and leave so they would not have to sit anywhere near me.

The school I was going to said they had no guidelines for a person with AIDS.

We began a series of court battles for nine months, while I was attending classes by telephone.

I'm just one of the kids, and all because the students at Hamilton Heights High School listened to the facts, educated their parents and themselves, and believed in me.

When I came out of surgery, I was on a respirator and had a tube in my left lung. I spent Christmas and the next thirty days in the hospital.

We look at these back-to-back games as a playoff series. That's what we've done all year. We want to win both games and not give them any life.

He led for a while, I led for a while. We're always trying to beat each other.

We were noticing an increase in these problems. We couldn't go to freshman orientation anymore and tell parents there were no problems with the old system.

Financial hardships were rough on us, even though Mom had a good job at G.M.

We got out of the pace we wanted. Fifty-two points is not our style, and Kellie going out, she is what holds this team together. That always hurts, and I think the combination of free throws and we got shots, but we didn't score.

We have engineers in Iowa, Washington State and France. Although we have a critical need for good communications, we can't afford to spend the time and money to fly folks for weekly design and review meetings.

It was my decision to live a normal life, go to school, be with my friends, and enjoying day to day activities. It was not going to be easy.

All in all I led a pretty normal life.

The desire to move into a bigger house, to avoid living AIDS daily, and a dream to be accepted by a community and school, became possible and a reality with a movie about my life, The Ryan White Story.

I spent Christmas and the next thirty days in the hospital,

The first five to six years of my life were spent in and out of the hospital.

On December 17, 1984, I had surgery to remove two inches of my left lung due to pneumonia. After two hours of surgery the doctors told my mother I had AIDS.

My studies are important to me. I made the honor role just recently, with 2 A's and 2 B's.

Financial hardships were rough on us, even though Mom had a good job at G.M.