the gift of life

yeah...today i gave blood. twice a school year the PA Bloodbank comes to school, and people ages 17 and over can give blood. surprisingly a lot of juniors and seniors give blood. anyways, since i turned 17 three days ago, a few weeks ago i signed up for it in homeroom. my parents give blood pretty regularly, so i figured why not. also, i'm not exactly freaked out about needles. i don't like to look, but it's okay. so i was scheduled to start the process at 9:45 this morning. so i filled out some papers, and drank some water. note to self: drink more water next time. so then they did my temp and blood pressure, and answering all those questions. then it was off to the bus! basically, they have two buses, with four chairs each. there were a lot of people giving blood at the time that i was! i was really nervous about it, but knew that i would get through it just fine. and i did. i felt really great while i was pumping the blood into the pouch. those nurses are really good at making sure you're okay and making sure no one will pass out. then after i was done i sat and ate a few crackers and drank some orange juice. another note to self: eat more crackers next time. third note to self: don't take the smokehouse cheddar ones, take the oreo looking ones.

so then i walked back into the school. it was only a few minutes before lunch so i just waited around. but walking to lunch, through the food court area, and to my seat was quite interesting. i felt really light headed, and felt like a bunch of energy had been sucked out of me. so i ate, but felt like i should've eaten more. i made sure to keep drinking water through the afternoon. if i make a lot of sudden movements then i get light headed, but i know that'll go away in a few days.

so now i'm getting ready to have a really nice meal of spaghetti. on a side note it was interesting being one of the younger ones to give blood. because a lot of my fellow juniors were asking me about my experiance. i can't count how many times i told people the worst part was when they pricked my finger. and how walking to each class i just felt really exhausted. but then again so many of us upperclassmen. i'm glad i gave blood today. and i think i'll continue to give blood whenever i can. so sign me up for the spring blood drive!