When I was 16 years old, my high school hosted a blood drive where I donated blood for the first time. As a burgeoning member of the Desert Hills HOSA Chapter, a big part of my commitment to the club was participating in the blood drives held at my school. With this responsibility in mind, I talked to my dad, a frequent donor, about both of us participating together. Despite my anxiety about the process, I powered through the donation and discovered it was one of the easiest and most fulfilling things I have ever done. It took barely thirty minutes in total, I had an amazing Phlebotomist, and other than a minor amount of fatigue I felt completely fine. Since then, I have participated in drives as often as I have been able, donating up to 8 units (which equates to one full gallon) of blood! My love for blood donation has not stopped at just donating myself. Through HOSA, I have been able to manage four successful blood drives, collecting over 120 units in total! Blood drive management is far from an easy task; I have to schedule dates, set up tables and chairs, organize, collect donors, design and hang posters, advertise, communicate, and commit hours of my time. But despite all that, I would be lying if I said I regretted even a minute of my involvement. My initial love for donating blood has driven me to accomplish such great things in blood drive management. With every drive and donation, I can see the impact I am making. I see the students who are returning every time to donate, the increasing amounts of appointment slots during sign-ups, and our unit goal getting higher. Blood donation is my biggest drive in life. It inspires me to volunteer, to support, and to learn. My love for blood donation even drove me to become a certified phlebotomist! Yet, in this drive, I have found that there is a serious lack of donors in my community and the nation as a whole. For the last two years of my involvement, there has been a serious need for donors due to a national critical blood shortage. This is a problem. Blood donation is too easy and too crucial for it to be so uncommon. Because of this, my drive for donation has furthered my determination to advocate for blood donation. Advocating is the first step to change, so I have done my best to fulfill my duty as a blood donor, HOSA President, Blood Drive Manager, and Phlebotomist to voice this need and inspire every person I can to donate blood. This includes over 10 of my personal friends and over 50 interested students from Desert Hills. Blood donation has, and will continue to drive me to advocate, volunteer, and sacrifice. It drives me to work towards a future where every patient is guaranteed life-saving blood units, without worry that there may not be enough to save them. In the short term, blood donation has given me personal fulfillment, leadership opportunities, community service opportunities, and the ability to inspire others and advocate. I have learned so much from these experiences and I am so grateful for my involvement in blood donation. Every individual drive inspires me and fuels my passion. In the long term, blood donation inspired me to become a phlebotomist (a career I hope to hold throughout my education), to sign up to be an NMDP marrow donor, and to continue to advocate. I will always have the experience and learning from blood donation, and I will always have this passion. I love to donate, and I truly know it is so important. My life was forever changed after that first donation two years ago, and I am so excited to continue my involvement in blood drives into college and throughout the rest of my life. I hope to continue being able to manage drives and to continue to inspire my peers to get involved. I hope to commit the rest of my life to service, just like Judy Fowler. Blood Drives and donation may be my biggest passion in community service, but there are so many other important ways to serve. I have seen personally the benefits and light service brings to any community, and I want to continue to provide that influence to the communities I am a part of. As I graduate high school and prepare for college, I am doing my best to continue to find opportunities to serve my community. From blood drives to cleaning initiatives to volunteering at and donating to shelters in the area, to raising money for important causes, I do my best to look for every opportunity available to me to serve those around me.