In August, I finally gave my 80th unit of blood via blood donation, completing 10 gallons of blood donated and fulfilling a personal goal.

I started donating blood in High School..  I'd wanted to in the aftermath of 9/11 but was too young, but I started once I was old enough.  I'm O+, which, while not the universal donor, is still very useful.  That said, at the time it was very much a "I'll donate, but on my schedule" kind of thing.

This all changed a few years later in college.  A friend of a friend got into an accident and nearly died, saved by the kindness of 80 strangers who donated the blood they went through before they were stabilized.

And that served as a sort of 'wake up call' to me.  I realized I didn't really have an excuse for not donating as often as possible, and set a personal goal to 'repay' that individual's 'debt' into the system.  I know nobody tracks this stuff except me, but I felt it was important because I was able to.

There've been some ups and downs along the way (machine breakages, changing donor centers for a while, low iron a few times) but it felt real good to get to 10 gallons, even though I didn't get a pin because it was through multiple donation organizations.  Maybe soon.

Anyways, in the US, if you're not afraid of needles, and you're not prohibited by the rules, I highly suggest giving blood.  I give "Double Red" (which Red Cross calls "Power Red") which means they take twice as much blood, but I can only donate half as often...which works better into my schedule anyways.