Growing up, I wanted to be a number of different things: firefighter, Indiana Jones, a veterinarian, a lawyer, and a slew of other things that my almost 30 year old brain cannot remember.
Looking back, I see that all of these things have something in common: they all help people, in one way or another.
I've always thought that I wanted to help people my entire life. Hence why I became an academic advisor/counselor at a community college in the over-populated, under-educated area of the Arkansas Delta.
I'm not going to be that person that says she loves her job (the real full time one), because I don't. I honestly do not love my job. I like my job. It pays the rent. I like that I'm helping the under-privileged get an education and find employment, but seeing students turned down for scholarship opportunities or wondering how they are going to pay this month's rent with the $7.25 an hour they make from McDonalds is starting to weigh on me. Heavily.
In my 29 years, I've come to a realization. My calling is not to help people. Not in the conventional ways.
Throughout life, I've met numerous people who know exactly what they want to do in life - my husband for example - he's known for a long time that he wants to be a CRNA and has been working to meet that goal for years now. I'm the complete opposite.
I never had a calling in life. I've heard numerous people say that God led them in a certain direction. I'm certainly a believer, but I used to think that those people were crazy. That is, until, I felt that I was being pulled in a certain direction. My mind, my heart, and every fiber of my being is being tugged on.
Now, at the age of 29 (obviously, I'm not afraid to say how old I am!) I've finally decided what I want to do/be when I grow up. I do still want to help others, but not in the obvious ways.
The ways I help others now (without getting paid for): Tay and I donate clothing, kitchen items, old furniture and lots of random other accessories to Goodwill and the Women's Shelter. We both donate blood and platelets at every opportunity, but I still feel like something is missing. We both donate to St. Jude and various animal shelters in the area; but again, something is missing.
I want to donate bone marrow.
Want and donate and bone marrow are words you probably never thought you'd see in a sentence together, but that is one thing that I want to do. Tay, being in the medical field, said that he doesn't think it's a good idea...pain and suffering and time off work. But I honestly do not care. I'm not doing it for myself. I'm doing it for the one person that I may end up saving. A few days of discomfort for me so that someone else can live life a little bit longer?? That honestly sounds like a no-brainer to me.
If you are interested in being put on the donor list, here's the link:
www.deletebloodcancer.org
The registration process takes about 10 minutes, and once you fill out the application, you will receive a cheek swab in the mail. You swab a cheek, send it in, and BAM you are officially on the list!
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