Eight years later...

Dear Marcus Johnson,

It doesn't matter about stereotypes in your life when it comes to love. I'm HIV positive and my husband of 8 years is HIV negative. He's plus sized and wasn't my type. I met him two weeks after I stopped looking for love.

He wanted company for his birthday, and I was a broken man that secretly gave up on writing with thoughts of suicide. Top after top broke my heart when I thought a man with abs was my "type."

We became friends and I fell in love with him. I'm his first relationship, ever. We're best friends and two bottoms that decided to live on OUR TERMS. He didn't care that I was an award-winning author, and I didn't care about his weight. We're totally opposite of each other.

We argue, fuss, disagree, love, grow, all that together. His heart and compassion hooked me. I told him of my affliction when we met. As a registered nurse for ten years, he didn't care. As a result, this is what love looks like when you stop letting stereotypes run your decision process.

A man that's "Your type," may NOT BE who you spend the rest of your life with. We last because, no matter what we do, we keep friends, family AND social media OUT of our personal business.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sealing the letter in a pink envelope, I wrote "Marcus Johnson" in the middle of the envelope with calligraphy script and dropped it in a wicker basket over on a draped table by the exit door of the class I taught on Saturdays.

Anger management. I didn't know why I taught this class when I had anger issues myself, but I enjoyed helping others because it was therapeutic. Plus, I owned my own practice.

It was a great way to put my degree in psychology to great use, since I had trouble finding a career after graduating from Howard University ten years ago. Thank God those days were over!

My class was comprised of sixty individuals from diverse lifestyles and backgrounds. They pay one hundred and twenty dollars a week). My rent was paid.

Today's assignment was to write a letter to someone in the class about an issue they rarely discuss with anyone, seal it in an envelope with their name on it and drop it in the wicker basket.

Once you comply, you sign a clipboard with just the name of the person on the letter so that others took a look to see what names were available. The idea of the exercise was to anonymously respond to the letter with an answer to what you read.

How you felt about what you read was your business. The idea was to express your feelings without anger. Great rhetoric was key in living a successful life free of bias.

One should be able to express their differences in a productive manner that didn't jeopardize the livelihood of others.

It was a fun exercise that would teach people how to be open and honest without being judgmental and condescending.

Writing about my relationship with my husband wasn't something I'd ever done, but I didn't ask my students to do anything that I wasn't willing to do myself.

I wrote Marcus because a) he was cute (yes, even my husband agreed that he was drop dead gorgeous), and b) he was a down low gay man with issues about coming out because he thought that all gay men were feminine, messy and filled with drama. My husband and I weren't any of those stereotypes.

I wanted to show him that being who you were wasn't a curse or a demon of its own design.

It was a beautiful, fulfilling thing that brought out the best in everything around you, except for the bigots.