Dear American Red Cross,

According to you, a pint of Liquid Me was unwelcome today in the science center during the blood drive. Why, you may ask? Well, apparently spending 5 or more years in Japan puts me at a slightly higher risk for a blood disease that they conveniently can't test for without an autopsy. So it looks like my dangerous foreign-exposed blood will not be saving any lives except my own.

And as I left the science center having gained a chapel credit but lost no blood, I was tempted to regret having told the truth about that small Asian island that held so much of my life in its salty hands. But then I stopped myself. 

Because you know what? 

That fifth year in Okinawa- the definitive year that prevented me from giving blood today- gave me the happiest and most fulfilling moments of my life. I spent it with the people who will be in my wedding- the people who saw more of my character grow and hold more of my heart than any other bunch on this measly continent. I jumped off a 30-foot tower into the ocean. I set a bonfire in my backyard. I latched onto the tail fin of a moving whale shark. I ate fried rice so incredible it made me cry just thinking about it a year later. I laughed and cried when things mattered, dreamed wildly and loved more than I knew I could. 

And I refuse to regret it. Because that year on that jewel of an island may have prevented me from saving anyone else's life today... but it sure saved mine.