Tis the season for blood donation – Iowa State’s semiannual blood drive was last week, drawing in an estimated 2,400 people. That’s almost a whopping 10 percent of our fall students, not including the entire community of Ames.

Millions of people in the United States need blood transfusions every year. One hospital can require hundreds of thousands of blood units annually, yet there are still people out there with their excuses. Mind you, some of us have actual reasons, but those aren’t the people I’m referring to.

Remember that exercise in high school that enlightened us to everyone’s mutual problems by raising our hands with our eyes closed? Raise your hand if you, or anybody you know, has: had cancer, had liver disease, had kidney disease, had a bleeding disorder, had surgery, been in a car accident or been in any other kind of serious accident.

Some of those situations may seem pretty limited in the scope of a college student’s life, but others are unnervingly close to home. Can you imagine the amount of people on campus alone that have been in an accident or had surgery? Think about any mother who’s opted for or needed a C-section, anyone hit by a car or who’s totaled their car in a drunken driving or simply tragic accident.

As I write this, KCCI is reporting the murder of a young man who lived three blocks away from me. On the way to a friend’s house this afternoon, I passed the crime scene unit on his front lawn and didn’t think twice about the impact that might mean for somebody else. It’s just not the way our minds work – until it happens to us, we can’t comprehend the suffering of others.

But things come out of nowhere all the time. As far as I know, there are very few people in this world that may be able to tell the future, to anticipate a deer jumping in front of you on your way home for the weekend, or a robbery gone wrong at the local gas station.

I donate because I have hope that if something else were to happen to me, I’d be in good hands. That somebody took a little time out of their day to donate so that my precarious existence isn’t so precarious.

So, don’t think of it as giving to strangers, an attitude that won’t push you to help. Think of it as giving to each other, to your families and to yourself. You’ll never know where that blood goes, but you’re guaranteed it’ll give someone a chance – and if you think you would deserve it, then you can’t possibly deny it to anyone else.

For all those who didn’t donate – afraid of the needles, can’t be bothered with the time and effort spent, ignorant to the need, victim to myths about safety, or think you don’t qualify – how many of those excuses would stop you if it were your own life on the line?

Contrary to some of the objections to blood donation, only minimal side effects are experienced – the most common being bruising at the needle site, which affects 23 percent of donors, and the most serious being a vasovagal reaction (passing out), which very rarely even needs medical attention, affecting 5 percent of donors. All equipment is sterile, and all blood is screened, making the entire process very safe for the donor and recipient.

With all this and karma behind you, how could you possibly refuse? It boggles the mind. The way some people shrug this off, the incredible ability to help others without a loss of your own – you lose 200 billion blood cells a day naturally, and produce a healthy amount to make up for it – the ability to literally grow help, is infuriating. I ask everyone I can if they’ll donate. When they say no, I ask them what would possibly stop them.

They take offense to this question, because they know that to outwardly refuse to donate is to exhibit unprecedented selfishness, and it’s rude to ask people if they’re selfish, because you know they’d do it for themselves.

If you didn’t give at the blood drive, you can always make an appointment at another mobile drive or the Blood Center. If you don’t think you qualify – go in anyway, and be honest – you may be surprised at how the rules have changed. People will never stop needing blood, and you will never have a better opportunity to make a tremendous impact so easy. Plus, you get cookies.

– Luci Van Scoy is a junior in anthropology from Newton.