The Universal Donor:The Universal Hero

Assignment:
Step One: Brainstorm a list of your heroes.
My parents, Jesus, blood donors (with their red flowing capes!)
Step Two: Capture a moment that explains why your hero is worthy of being looked up to as a hero.

The girl, who could have been anyone, had walked past the double doors, intimidating and welcoming, three times. She was working on her fourth.

"Can I help you?" A friendly voice interrupted her nervous mind's incessant pep talk. This was the moment the girl had been waiting for. Could she walk through those doors and leave a part of herself behind? Could she let that needle invade her arm and suck her blood into a tiny, plastic, vampire-like pouch that was eager for the substance that flowed through her veins? Then she remembered her friend who had been pricked and prodded and had been the recipient of that eager plastic pouch of blood. So with one bold step and one quiet tone, she heard her voice say, "I have an appointment to donate blood."

The friendly voice, which also had a friendly face, took her ID and sent her to the cubicle of incessant questions and then the moment of truth came: the phlebotomist asked for her finger and it took all of the girl's iron will to let the tech test her iron. Sufficient amounts. More questions flooded the air and more questions and more questions until finally the chance to move beyond the cubicle of questions arrived.

The girl was led to the blood drawing chair and dared to watch the needle glide into her arm. "What beautiful veins you have!"
The girl had never before received such a compliment and almost didn't know how to respond, but the politeness drilled into her social schema responded for her, "Why thank you."

The girl squeezed the stress ball like a child eagerly juicing an orange and 9.5 minutes later she had earned her red hero's cape, except it came in the form of a purple spongy band that fit perfectly into the contours of her arm, but that band looked like a superhero's cape to everyone in that room and more importantly to the person who would have her eager plastic pouch pouring out life to them.