It was in me to give, so they took it out of me.

Blood, that is. Today was the first time I've given blood. I tried once back in high school, but I started bruising and they had to pull the needle out before they even got half of a bag (which they cannot use). After that, I've always been a little apprehensive about the process.

Nonetheless, I've been meaning to do it for a while. When our company had a health fair a few weeks ago, I stopped by the Canadian Blood Services table to find out my blood type (its 'O' but still not sure if its +/-).

Type O negative blood is considered the "universal donor" type; anyone who needs blood can be given type O neg (listen for them to call for a bag of it in shows like ER, etc). Why? Because it won't coagulate when mixed with other blood types.

So, knowing that I had a chance of being able to provide really useful blood (it's all good, and they won't refuse any of it), I thought it was time to try again.

All told, it took about an hour, of which less than 10 minutes was the sucking extraction of the blood (and the needle wasn't bad at all). Then you get all the juice and cookies you want.

Want to know more? Go here to find out more about giving blood in Canada.

Update: It's confirmed that I'm part of the 7% of the population that is Type O, Rh Negative. My second donation is tomorrow, and I'll be giving every 56 days after this.