Donations.

Not donations of money. Donations of blood. Today I donated blood.

I like to donate blood, oddly enough. Maybe I like feeling like I'm doing my part. Maybe I like the free extra large t-shirts or blankets or coupons they give me when I'm done. Maybe I like the bottle of orange pineapple juice they give me so I won't pass out. Maybe I like needles. I think it's a combination of the orange pineapple juice and the feeling that I'm accomplishing something.

I used to always have low iron. They prick your finger and drop your blood in this liquid, and if it sinks, you're fine. If not, they centrifuge some blood, and take the exact count. Usually I fail the centrifuge. However, today it fell down. And I passed all the other tests that they ask, too, though those usually aren't a problem.

The first time I tried to donate blood, I was 17 and my iron was too low. The second time, I was 17 and my iron was fine. However, the donation process took much longer than I expected. I had signed up at the beginning of second period and had plans for lunch, which was after second. We were on block scheduling, so second period lasted an hour and fifty minutes. However, I was intent on getting Moe's with Jeff, so when they sent me from the bloodmobile to the classroom nearby to eat a cookie, drink juice, and rest, I asked if I could leave. There was no adult supervision, just two students, one of whom said, "Well, someone else thought they could leave and she's unconscious in the other room right now..." I left, eating my cookie as I walked across our extensive campus to find Jeff at a rather hurried pace as the bell had just rang. I caught up with him, and we began to walk towards the parking lot. Something was wrong, though. We reached the main office, and I was feeling faint. My head was light, there was a buzzing in my ears, and light was dimming. I sat down and put my head between my knees, knowing that I should have rested. I waited a few seconds, intent on at least just getting to the car. Thirty yards later, I was sitting again. However, the car was in site now. Jeff was concerned, but I refused to stop. We made it about half the remaining distance, and I stopped again. I decided to make it the rest of the way, and stood up. Jeff supported me, helping me make the final steps.

Now, this is where things got interesting. I should have stopped, but the car was 20 feet away, so I kept going. However, everything in the world changed. Usually the world looks like this:


However, colors began to get more enhanced, and things got a little trippy, or at least as trippy as anything I've ever experienced, more like this:


It was crazy, I remember thinking as Jeff sat me in the passenger's seat and prepared to drive my car out to lunch. I leaned the seat back, then sat up and looked in the mirror. My face was white and my lips were gray and colorless. I looked... kind of like i'd fallen in a bowl of powder or something.

Maybe I donate because I want to see the crazy colors of the world again, all trippy and enhanced. I don't know. Probably not, because I also associate that with the odd helplessness that I couldn't make it to the car, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make my body remain conscious enough to complete those few steps. It was an odd realization, that I couldn't overcome a little faintness after donating blood.

Listen to medical person's advice, they're not idiots. The people that think their advice doesn't matter are the idiots. They're the ones that end up passing out on the way to a car, or the ones that realize the hard way that the medicines prescribed actually work.

And lastly, some of you may have wondered why I didn't just leave late for lunch. The answer is because then we wouldn't have time to eat at Moes. And Moes was worth it.