I grew up always wanting to help people, whether it was as simple as helping them carry their groceries or more complicated like possibly save their lives if I was ever in a position to. Growing up I always believed that to save someone’s life you had to be a doctor, EMT, firefighter, or police officer, but I quickly learned that you can save someone’s life by simply giving your time or effort. When I turned sixteen I was a sophomore in high school and my school offered a blood drive for students to participate in, but since I was only sixteen I had to get a signature from my parents so that I could participate in it. My mom was really skeptical about it, but I told her that I really wanted to do it because I wanted to help save people. After some pretty hefty persuasion, she signed the permission form for me. The next day I went to school and turned it in and gave blood for the first time.
I never really liked needles when I was younger, so when I went to give blood I was totally freaked out. I held my breath and turned my head like the phlebotomist suggested, but I could barely feel the needle. Next thing I know, my blood is coursing through the tube and into the blood bag. Less than 15 minutes later, I was finished. Looking back at it, I’m really proud of myself for that. I overcame a fear of needles to give blood to hopefully help save someone else’s life. After that first time, I was hooked on it. I loved giving blood because I knew that it helped others who may really need it.
I had given blood every opportunity that I had up to my senior year, and that’s when giving blood really hit home. My mom had a medical emergency about half way through my senior year. I had to call an ambulance for her at 2:00am one morning because she had passed out in our home from a lack of blood. She wouldn’t stop bleeding. I was so scared. That’s when I realized that giving blood really did help save other people’s lives. My mom and I didn’t have the same blood type, so I know that me donating wouldn’t really do much, so I had to count on other donors with a compatible blood type to step up.
I know that hospitals and blood banks have a supply of blood, but I knew that without donors like myself, there wouldn’t be any blood to have saved my mom’s life that night. I started giving blood in a more serious fashion. Instead of just going to a blood drive that I saw while I was driving down the road, I would get into contact with my local blood donation center and make appointments every chance that I get. I quickly made an account with the Arkansas Blood Institute in Fort Smith, Arkansas. I got a donor ID card and an online account that I can check on anytime. From that time on, I went out and started making appointments for every time that I would be eligible to give blood. It didn’t matter where the blood drive was being held, I would make an effort to go to it. I’d drive out of town to go to blood-bus blood drives. I did all of this before I knew that I could donate at the actual blood center, which was probably something I should have asked about first off. But I didn’t care, I loved giving blood and would do it every single time if I had to.
Now I’m a junior in college at the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith, and I still give blood every chance that I get. As I mentioned earlier, I grew up wanting to help people and save lives, and now that I’m in college that dream is becoming a reality. I am a criminal justice major and aspire to be a federal law enforcement officer with either the DEA or ATF. With those dreams starting to become a reality, I still focus on helping out my local community by giving blood. It is a lot easier now to make appointments and to donate because the Arkansas Blood Institute comes to my campus every eight weeks to host a blood drive. I also got a lot of my fraternity brothers to donate blood too. My fraternity has two major philanthropies which have nothing to do with giving blood, but we do have to do a certain amount of time of community service and the blood drive is a great way to do that! Over half of my chapter went to the blood drive on campus last semester to donate with many more signed up for this semester.
Giving blood started out as just a way for me to help out strangers by potentially saving their lives, but now it means so much more to me because needing blood hit so close to home. Even with my big plans and dreams after I graduate, I still make time and still love to go and donate blood because I know there’s another kid, another parent, or even a friend out there who will need a stranger to give up their time and some of their blood to save either themselves or someone they love.
