We all make choices in life that define who we are.

We choose between some­thing as sim­ple as whether to eat Lucky Charms or Cheerios for break­fast, to more com­pli­cated choices such as what type of vehi­cle to buy. Each choice we make has some impact on our lives; be it large or small. In many instances, our choices also have an effect on the peo­ple around us and can even affect peo­ple we do not know.

One choice that I made this sum­mer sparked my inter­est about human con­nec­tions and what some peo­ple are will­ing to do to ben­e­fit oth­ers. Some peo­ple travel to for­eign coun­tries and build homes in under­priv­i­leged nations. Others make finan­cial con­tri­bu­tions to feed the hun­gry. I made a choice that was even eas­ier than those. I became an organ donor.

It was a deci­sion that I had thought about for some time, but one that I felt was right thing to do. I thought about the improve­ments in tech­nol­ogy in just the last 100 years and how doc­tors can per­form an eye trans­plant and give a per­son the gift of sight. If I were in a posi­tion where I needed an organ trans­plant, I would want some­one to have been an organ donor to save my life.

I am not sug­gest­ing that every sin­gle per­son should be an organ donor. However, I believe it some­thing that every­one should at least con­sider and give seri­ous thought to. I would not want to be the per­son who has to tell the mother of an 8-year-old girl that she could have had a liver trans­plant, but that nobody was will­ing to donate one.

According to Donate Life America, 18 peo­ple die each day due to the lack of avail­able organs for trans­plant and more than 100,000 peo­ple are in need of life-saving transplants.

It is not every person’s job to be a hero and to save lives, but look­ing out for the safety and sur­vival of our fel­low human beings should at least be on the list somewhere.

Not every­one is in a posi­tion to make the deci­sion about whether or not they want to live. For some, the choice is not theirs, but yours. Saving someone’s life is a choice that we can all make. n