Blood.

It’s a vital part of our existence as human beings, something we depend on to keep us upright, breathing, and functioning. It’s an inescapable part of our daily lives. We feel it race through our veins when we’re near a crush and pound in our ears when we’re nervous or anxious. We use our pulse to determine our emotions and categorize our physical responses to stimuli. Life, one could argue, would cease to exist without it.

It makes sense, then, that blood drives are just an inescapable as blood itself. It seems that every few weeks you can stumble across a “Big Red Bus,” looking for willing participants to donate. These drives are held at community events, in shopping center parking lots, and as Stetson students recently experienced, on college campuses.

Many students are ready and willing to donate their time and blood to the cause. According to One Blood, these donations save lives daily. The organization reports that one in three people will need some sort of blood transfusion at some point in their life, and because blood cannot be manufactured, the only way to provide these transfusions is through donation.

Only about 10% of the U.S. population donates annually, but students who make the choice to donate help those numbers grow. Their reasoning for doing so tends to follow a common thought process: They believe donating blood is important because it’s a way to help others. They claim that they feel a moral obligation to donate, because they see donating as a fundamentally good act. They reason that though they may have hesitations, blood donations can save lives.

Morgan Egan, a freshman here at Stetson, sums up this thought process, stating, “There are a lot of people in our country that need [blood] to be given so that hospitals, doctors, and nurses have the resources they need to perform live saving operations.”

This idea seems to be a common thread connecting many students’ perspectives on the matter. They claim that blood donations will always be needed because there will always be people in crisis who will depend upon their contributions. On top of this, as one student pointed out, blood donations don’t last very long.

This is a major factor that students take into consideration when they decide to donate. According to theAmerican Red Cross, blood donations have a shelf-life of only 42 days, meaning that blood banks need to be replenished fairly often, especially after major crises. Students generally agree that they are more motivated to donate blood after hearing that one area in particular needs donations. Jada Ho, a sophomore, describes her experience with donating blood at a time when her hometown community desperately needed it, stating:

“…The local blood bank desperately needed blood. I said ‘I have blood, you have a blood bank, let’s make this work.’”

Crisis on a local level is not the only motivator. Recent events, such as the tragic shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, have prompted students who were not previously donors to become ones. They claim they are more likely to give blood when they know their donations are going to areas that truly need the supplies.

Many students claim (somewhat jokingly) that they are motivated to donate by the incentives donation centers offer. Fleece blankets, insulated cups, and t-shirts draw college students in, and even if it is not their main reason for donating, they state that it certainly eases the pain they associate with the prick of a needle.  As one student puts it:

“Sure, donating blood is a good deed, but who could pass up free movie tickets?”

While there is a common thread connecting the reasons why students decide to donate, there are also links between the reasons people choose not to donate. The most common of these factors is a debilitating fear or phobia. Whether it be of blood, needles, veins, or of passing out, many students hesitate to donate because they are afraid of the process of drawing blood or of the impacts the taking of blood can have on the body.

In some cases, students would like to donate, but are physically unable to do so. In order to donate, you must meet certain physical requirements. Students state that they’ve been turned away from donating because they do not meet a certain weight requirement, iron level, or take certain medications that prevent them from donating. In these instances, the intent to donate is there, but it may be a risk to their health, or the health of the individual receiving the transfusion.

Though many students either experience hesitations when donating or decide not to donate at all, there is a general consensus that blood donations are incredibly important. They agree that these donations are vital to treating life-threatening conditions, and that blood is a commodity we as a society can never have too much of. Many students describe times in their lives when donated blood personally impacted them. Family members, close friends, and even some students have at one point or another been dependent on blood transfusions for some kind of medical procedure, and without these transfusions, the necessary care could not have been provided.

It seems Stetson’s students agree: blood donations are incredibly important, and though the motivations may vary slightly, donating blood is perceived as a critical part of medical care. Students are quick to encourage those eligible to go out and donate. They point out that we live in a world that is increasingly experiencing tragedies, and that the fallout from these events typically depends on blood donations to care for those affected. These catastrophes, they claim, may feel out of their control, but donating blood gives them a way to feel as if they can make an impact, no matter how small.