There comes a moment of seemingly cruel realization, a moment in which you come into ownership of a parenthetical knowledge about your identity. It should pale in comparison to your diagnosis. But it doesn't; it supercedes it. Runs past all the cautionary information relayed to you by physicians and counselors and rushes to the finish line. It's an insidious understanding that you are now not only Positive – you are Appositive. Your identity will forevermore be placed into brackets, qualified and added to and amended. If only within yourself. No long are you John. You are now, John +. – Benjamin Bruckner, RU12 *