Be The Match, Explained

To explain the last post:

I put myself on the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry. Essentially my genetic and blood type profile is available to medical personnel to find matches for people with cancer or other blood disorders to potentially get a donation to prolong their life.

I've wanted to be on the registry for a long time, and I finally took the time to do it. A lot of people wonder why I've chosen to be a donor, and I'm going to try to explain.

Essentially, it boils down to the fact that a minor inconvenience on my part (a couple of days off due to a medical procedure) can save someone's life, or at least prolong it enough to eventually save it. Even if the recipient rejects the donation, I bought them that much more time with their family for a pittance of a price. I can't help but believe that we should help our fellow humans in any way possible, be it the tiny act of kindness of holding open a door to a major thing such as donating a large sum of money to the Red Cross. I truly believe that anything you can do to help your fellow humans is a good thing. I believe in doing it for the sake of improving our society as a whole. Being on the registry, to me, is just one more tiny way I can help out.

I'm a born volunteer. I donated 2700+ hours at COSI as a kid (and I'm going back to hit the big 3K), and I do random bits around town. I volunteer at Planned Parenthood, I donate time wherever I can. This is just one more step in that for me.

Sometimes, I get really impatient to be financially stable mainly because I know that money talks, and I really want to be able to donate money to the ASPCA, to the Red Cross, to a dozen different organizations I feel could use it. I believe in putting your money where your mouth is..but not at the expense of your own family losing its stability.

I have this great Utopian dream where people aren't so hesitant to help each other out.

My husband and I are broke. Hardcore. We're barely making ends meet thanks to me being out of work right now. I still went through my closet and found all the decent clothes that didn't fit or that I just don't wear and I donated them. Half to the Kidney Foundation, half to the Salvation Army. Sure, it's not a monetary donation, but it will help in its own small way. If nothing else, someone can get a decent pair of jeans cheap at the thrift store now thanks to me getting chubby :-D

I'm also an organ donor. When I die, the doctors can take anything that can be used. Once again, I'm not going to be needing it, so let someone else get some use out of it. Recycling on a biological level :-)

I donate blood regularly, too. Not as regularly as I should honestly, but I do it. I just donated 30 days ago, so I'm not allowed to another 30 days but still. I did it. I do it. I'm an O negative, so I feel compelled. Anyone can use my blood, therefore I need to donate. Once again, on my part it costs virtually nothing for the opportunity to help people.

Perhaps you've noticed I use a lot of "cost vs payout" style logic, and it's true, I do. In most people's minds, they thing "what is in it for me? what does this cost me?" which, let's face it, is a survival thing.

So, my challenge: what can you do? Is there something small you can do to improve the world? Hold a door open for someone, donate blood, volunteer an hour of your time for a cause you believe in, anything. Do something that doesn't simply benefit you, but that benefits society as a whole.

Also, I know this was link heavy; I decided to make it easy for any fellow research junkies.