I contracted genital herpes in January of 2007. I always thought that i wasn't ever going to get anything. I had a very hard time that winter. I left my boyfriend and gave up all of my independence, and moved back in with mom. I went to a clinic to get my medications, and talked to a woman there. She had genital herpes also. She told me a story and it lighted up my life. It was about a clam with a grain of sand in it. The grain of sand irritates it and the clam secretes a mucus that covers the grain of sand and makes it a pearl. She told the sand was like my herpes.