A while back Joanne and I had decided we should give blood. I was thinking…I’ve always been scared but I want to give blood and it would be good to have someone to hold my hand. Anyway, yesterday we had planned a Jacob, Ghassan, Joanne and Jemma trip for a little blood giving. Minus Jacob we made our way on a little Parramatta adventure. Doing English classes with Ghassan to distract me from my deep heavy breathing we made it all the way there.

I’d say perhaps a motley crew we arrived proud to say “We’d like to give blood.” A little disheartened when we had to say we’d eaten a variety of interesting breakfast items like cake and pasta and toast, we were asked to wait and eat some little pies and quiches. These were quite delicious, and very soothing with the lovely warm assistance of my new best friend Robyn. The hour’s wait didn’t help my nerves.

And the story ends well. I gave blood. I was very scared. I felt elated afterwards. My theory is that conquering a big fear is something that makes one happy. Ghassan’s theory was that losing that much blood does things to your mind and makes you stop thinking. Either way I don’t really care, it was pretty great. I love doing things that are scary. In a strange kind of way. I can’t really articulate the value but I think it’s important to challenge ourselves to do things that scare us. I reckon I’ll do it again. Deep breaths.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 10:42 am.