Founder, R4 Style | Author
Advocate • Educator ROB QUINN, MS • Survivor
Boston, MA
“You are never too far gone to come back to yourself.” — Rob Quinn
Much of my life has been about learning how to live again.
In my thirties, an HIV diagnosis shattered everything I thought I was. My health collapsed. My career as a Child Life Specialist—the work I loved—was gone. In the aftermath, I lost my sense of belonging, my identity, and even my belief that I still mattered.
For years, I disappeared into addiction. Numbing myself felt easier than facing the grief, fear, and shame that seemed too heavy to carry. Yet even in my darkest hours, a quiet, stubborn persistence refused to let me go. That tiny ember of hope eventually grew into a fire—and became the foundation for what I now call R4 Style.
Born from lived experience, R4 Style is the framework that helped me—and now helps others—find a way back to themselves through four stages of growth:
Over the past three decades, I’ve learned that transformation isn’t a single lightning-bolt moment—it’s the accumulation of countless small choices: to stay, to try again, to tell the truth even when it’s uncomfortable.
Speak openly to challenge HIV stigma and uplift the voices of people living with HIV — sparking honest conversations about health, resilience, and belonging at the local, state, and national levels. Through R4 Style, I help turn those conversations into action and transformation.
At the heart of it all is my belief that vulnerability is not weakness—it’s the doorway to real healing.
I’ve been honored to have my story and work featured in:
On the Other Side of the Street is more than a memoir—it’s an invitation.
It asks you to release what’s safe, step into uncertainty, and choose a life that’s truly yours. Threaded through my story are the core principles of R4 Style—a framework for anyone standing at the edge of change, whether that change is chosen or forced upon you.
Though deeply personal, my story is also universal. It’s for anyone who has faced loss, identity shifts, or the quiet unraveling of a life once trusted.
I live in Boston, Massachusetts, where I write, mentor, and create spaces—on the page, in community rooms, and in the hearts of those who need them most—where authenticity isn’t just accepted, it’s celebrated.
My hope is simple: to remind you that no matter how far you’ve fallen, you can rise, rebuild, and come home—not to who you once were, but to the person you were always meant to be.
Rock Bottom may have stripped away the life you knew, but Recovery opens the door to healing. Resilience is the strength you discover along the way, and Reinvention is the moment you step into the life waiting for you.
Every scar, every stumble, every step has shaped you into someone braver, wiser, and more whole. And when you take that next step forward—however small—you are not going back. You are moving toward the other side of the street.
Because we don’t just survive what breaks us. We become someone stronger because of it.
“The curb isn’t the end. It’s where your next chapter begins.”
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