One beautiful fall afternoon, two vampires emerge from the Ravines that border Grand Valley State University. They wander around campus for a while, ravenous and eager to find a bite to eat. Despite all of GV’s campus dining options, they can’t find what they’re craving. They walk through Kirkhof, eyeing all the humans standing in the Panda Express line.

They exit Kirkhof, and suddenly, as they look over the parking lot, there it is. They find the one dining option that provides what they desire. It’s a food truck of sorts that reads “Michigan Blood” on the side and a sign near it that says “Blood Drive!”

“Aha! Lunch!” They exclaim. The two hurry to the parked van and try to act as human as possible.

They stand outside the entrance of the van and call out, “Trick or treat!”

We’re not so different from vampires, you know. The one thing they need to sustain themselves is the same thing we need. They have super strength, speed, and compulsion to be able to hunt down their sources of blood, but what happens when humans need an outside source of blood?

We all have something that we can offer humanity. We can offer our belief for justice, our voices for singing, our brains for the medical field, our ability to build houses, and our blood.

Even if you feel like you may not have much to offer the world, you have one thing you were born with that someone in this world needs. It courses through your veins. Someone, somewhere is in need of the blood type you may have, and by donating a little bit of your time and a little bit of your blood, you could save someone’s life.