That Day I Stopped Being A Chicken

Hi, it’s Leslie Harris, and I’m a bit embarrassed to admit this, but I finally donated blood for the first time this past weekend.

I almost donated blood when I was a teenager. I was very scared, but all my friends were going, and there was peer pressure. But when I got to the donation center, they rejected me because I had just come home from Europe, and they decided that jet lag was not a good combination with blood donation.

So why didn’t I ever go again? Fear, anxiety, lack of someone to hold my hand.

Well this past weekend, my friend Deb talked to me into going to a big blood drive. I had just had my blood drawn for a routine test at my doctors, and I thought to myself, it’s kind of the same thing. And it really is! You just have to sit there longer. I will admit though, it did hurt when the phlebotomist took the needle out of my arm.

And you know what? They rejected my friend because her pulse was too high! But I did it, and now that it’s been through it I’ll do it again, and it’s good to know that I’m helping to save lives.

Maybe this will help me get over some other silly fears.

What have you avoided, that you know is silly? Let me know in the Facebook comments.