I've always taken the opportunity to give blood for granted. Hopefully the rest of you humans out there reading this aren't as oblivious as I was, but until a blood transfusion became a situation in my personal life, I never gave a second thought to how much good comes out of donating blood – and “good" is quite the understatement.

From voluntarily getting stuck with a needle, a schedule too busy for my own good, the ache in my arm afterwards, I'm sure I could throw out every reason under the sun as to why I'm not the first in line to donate blood. The first time I donated blood was in high school, on behalf of my sister who was too under the weather to do it herself. Some of her best friends were involved in a tragic car accident and afterwards they were holding blood drives for support. I sucked it up, gave a pint or two and left, not really thinking twice about it. For the next few months I received weekly phone calls asking for more donations and I just couldn't/didn't have the motivation to find the time. I took my name off the caller list and again, never thought twice about it. Looking back, I still can't believe how unbelievably selfish that was.

Flash forward two years and my grandpa gets diagnosed with Leukemia, cancer of the blood. They told us he'd have to go through multiple rounds of chemotherapy and blood transfusions to rid his body of the cancer – basically his blood had gone bad and he needed a new batch. To this day he's had over fourteen blood transfusions, but what was actually going on never really hit me until I got to see it for myself. At the time of my personal revelation, my grandpa had undergone four transfusions and I was getting to sit with him through his fifth. As I walked into the cold hospital room, at MD Anderson's chemotherapy treatment center, I saw my favorite familiar face lying there on the bed. His pale, aged, fragile body, weakened by the poison in his blood, lay completely still as a nurse hooked him up to two bags of blood.

**Little medical disclaimer: For those of you who don't know, it takes a long time for the blood to transfuse into its new host, we're talking about two hours per pint.

Pawpaw: "Can't you make it go any faster? I always feel so much better after the blood."

Nurse Maria: "No sir, you know I can't,"

Pawpaw: "You're killing me Maria!!"

Maria: "No sir, I'm saving your life."

This little exchange happened halfway through one bag, right before the transition into the next. Since my grandpa's first transfusion, my grandma had continuously mentioned to me how great my pawpaw felt after each new batch of blood. However, what was actually going on in his body never fully registered in my head.

As my pawpaw's skin began to take a pinkish color again, it finally hit me like a freight train. Some human out there in the universe (fourteen humans actually) made the simple, selfless, yet oh so generous contribution to society when they took the time out of their life to sit and donate blood. Their selfless decision was saving the life of the man I love more than anything in the world right before my eyes.

Suddenly I found myself overwhelmed with guilt and gratitude. How unbelievably selfish have I been? Could I really not have given a little bit of myself to people who need it so desperately? How did this never actually register in my head? How fortunate have I been to live such a healthy life? How could I not have donated all of the times the bank called me and potentially helped out other families in similar situations?

However, instead of dwelling on thoughts such as these I asked myself, how could I change this?

This is where the gratitude crashed in, like waves crashing on the shoreline. One after the other, I realized all of the things I wanted to say to the people who take the time out of their lives to do something so selfless for a complete stranger, and I just want to take this opportunity to thank any individual who has ever donated blood. You are undoubtably a hero. You may have been like me and not thought twice about it, but because of your contribution, you saved a life, and maybe more than one. How remarkable is that? I can't even put into words how wonderful it is to me when I get to hear about people selflessly helping out other people, especially in ways as huge as this. The potential kindness and generosity of the human spirit is severely underestimated.

I never realized how much I took the opportunity to give blood for granted, until I got to witness firsthand a bag of someone else's blood filling the veins of someone I care so deeply for. It absolutely blows my mind that because of a simple choice some stranger out there made, my grandpa gets a second chance at life. I know I sound like a broken record here, but when you really think about it, the act of donating blood is all too easy to ultimately be this rewarding. You get stuck with a needle once, sit still for maybe fifteen minutes, and there you have it, a life SAVED. Sure, it's not the most pleasant activity in the world, but you are literally giving someone else the chance at new life.

Whether it's because of an accident, an illness, whatever the case may be, without your contribution said person would not be able to LIVE. Such an effortless task, yet the outcome is entirely beyond words.

I can only hope one of you finds yourself as inspired as I've recently found myself. You never know when it could be one of your own laying there on a table. So go be the Derek Shepard of your own life, it's a beautiful day to save lives.