You can do it!

photo credit.

I donated blood for the first time EVER this week. I know, shocker, right? It seems everyone and their mom has donated blood at one time or another.

But me? Nope.

I'm not scared of needles (although I get a bit squeemish at the actual time of puncture) and I don't have any illness or reason not to be able to donate. It's just never something I thought to do.

(Also, the blood donation centers on campus are buses, and the thought that someone could drive away while sucking my blood kinda turned me off to it.)

But anyway. I got the whim to donate after lunch on Tuesday and so I headed up to the bus, filled out the paperwork, answered the "secret questions" and gave over a pint of my hard-earned blood to LifeSouth.

Because why not? According go the American Red Cross, every two seconds someone is in need of donated blood. And there are tons of benefits.

• You get a mini-physical: they check your blood pressure, your pulse, your hemoglobin levels, your temperature. You get checked for HIV and other diseases. Also,
  
• You find out your blood type. Which, I'm embarrassed to say, I did not know. But in case of an emergency it's probably a good thing to know! (FYI, I'm type O, the universal donor. Something tells me I'll be getting a donation reminder phone call in a couple of months...)
• It's good for your body. Donating blood regularly can help lower iron levels, which research suggests can reduce the risk of heat disease.
  
• FREE STUFF. Um, hello? Juice and t-shirts? Yes, I will do a lot of things for swag.

So I'm totally walking on sunshine after my blood donating experience. I even called my dad right after. He used to donate blood like it was going out of style. He would even collect those tiny pins you get after donating a certain number of pints to the red cross and give them to my little brother and I.

All I know is, I'll be marking my calendar for my next eligible donation date (which they helpfully write for you on the take-away sheet.)

It's a great, easy thing to do for the community and for yourself. What about the rest of you, internet? Have you ever donated blood? How was your experience?