I believe that blood is one of the most precious gifts that any person can give. Just by giving fifteen minutes of my time and getting over a fear of needles, I have been able to help many people and even have saved lives. Life is such a gift from God and knowing that I can help someone, especially a child, lengthen their time on this Earth is what inspires me to donate as often as is allowed.
My desire to help others is the reason I donate. The first time I donated was at the end of my senior year of high school. The Oklahoma Blood Institute was doing a blood drive at my current school at the time and although I was nervous, never having donated before and quite nervous around needles, I decided to go for it. After donating once, I thought deeply about how just spending fifteen minutes of my time could change someone’s life forever. When I got my record of donating in the mail I found out that my blood type was o negative. I did some research and found out that this was the blood type of a universal donor, the type of blood used in emergency situations that is so essential. This inspired me even more to donate a second time. This time when I donated, I was told that I was CMV negative. When asking what that meant, I was told once again how special my blood was. It turned out that my blood was pure enough to be used for babies and young children. This really struck me hard because I actually am in school majoring in Early Childhood Education which will one day allow me to teach grades pre-k through 3rd. I have a massive place in my heart for kids and donating my blood gives me another opportunity to help them besides just in the classroom.
When I donate, I feel like I am paying forward my donations for someone I know who might need blood one day, or even myself. I encourage all of those around me to begin donating, even if they do not feel comfortable about it at first. I speak of how important it is to donate, especially because one day we may be the ones needing the blood. I believe we need to donate now, while we are young and healthy to do our part and save the lives of many. We most likely will not be able to donate forever, so I desire to inspire others to begin soon.
Since I have started donating, I have given a whole blood donation every sixty days. It makes me feel accomplished knowing that I have positively impacted someone’s life whom I do not even know. It gives even more purpose to my life then what I had before. It has changed my life for the better in a countless amount of ways. I want to make a change in this world and I feel like donating blood and encouraging others to do the same can help me accomplish that goal. I hope to one day meet the people who have received my blood as a donation and use that experience to motivate others to donate as well.