Thursday night I attended the theater performance of The God Committee not knowing what to expect. I left the show with a greater understanding of the importance of organ donation.

When the performance ended, a panel of four audience members went onstage and shared their knowledge about organ donation. Two of the members had received an organ transplant and shared how grateful they are to have their lives back again.

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One older woman had received a lung transplant a few years back. She expressed how thankful she was to receive a pair of lungs, but how hard it was for her to accept them since they were coming from a 20-year-old man, who reminded her of her children that died around the same age.

When I heard this woman’s story all I could think about was the tiny red heart in the bottom corner of my license. I’m 20-years-old, just like him. What if I got in a fatal accident? Who would get another chance to live with the help of my organs?

All these thoughts kept popping into my head, and I realized how nothing in life is guaranteed.

At any moment any one of us could be involved in an accident and lose our lives. Yet here we are worrying over petty things, while someone else is out there wondering if they’ll have two more weeks to live.

College offers a chance to be philanthropic, whether it’s through a sorority or fraternity organization, a blood drive, or simply volunteering. Registering as an organ donor is a simple addition to that list.

One type of organ donation is a living donation. In this instance, a living person donates parts of his/her organs to a person in need. The most common living donor transplant is for a kidney; however, transplants can be done for a segment of the liver, a lobe of one lung, part of the pancreas, and very rarely a portion of the intestine (transplantliving.org). A living donor can do all of these procedures as long as he/she matches up with the patient.

Thousands of people across the globe are in need of a transplant. In Kansas alone, currently 600 people are waiting for organs, and thousands more are waiting for tissue or corneal transplants. Unfortunately, every year thousands of people never make it off the waiting list. By signing up to be a registered donor, you could potentially be saving eight people who may have never gotten off of the list.

If you’re a Kansas or Missouri resident, log on to Yes They Want Me to join the organ and tissue registry today.

For the loss of one life, many can be saved.