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Alex Schenkler

@theschenkler

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Notary Public 😏🥵🪩✨
well read and well fed
voters are like so hot 🔥🔥🔥

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this might be old news but i turned 31 in 2025 🙂‍↕️🤩🤷‍♀️ by @theschenkler

feast your eyes on france by @theschenkler

did I mention I went to France? by @theschenkler

Doing (not even close to) my best 🥹❤️🙂‍↕️ by @theschenkler

me, circa two days ago by @theschenkler

I got a phone call in August 2020 that changed my life forever.

I had joined the Gift of Life registry three years prior and the random number that kept calling me turned out to be Gift of Life letting me know I was a potential match. I now pick up every random number.

Some medical tests later, my potential match was revealed to be a perfect match. They asked me so many times if I was sure. After giving the easiest and surest yes I’ve ever said, I donated stem cells to a stranger whose Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) type (the immune system’s genetic fingerprint) matched mine perfectly.

Today, she’s no longer a stranger. She’s my Susan, who I get to walk through gardens with, cheer for, celebrate, sit beside, and laugh with.

The odds of matching are incredibly slim. So imagine finding out, a year after I donated, that not only did she want to meet, we lived in the same city.

Every time we’re together, I’m reminded that this connection exists because of a terrible thing, a hopeful question, and an easy yes.

Donating wasn’t the big deal it’s often made out to be. It wasn’t painful. I didn’t have to donate bone marrow. It was just a few days of inconvenience and discomfort.

For Susan, for her family, for any recipient, it was everything. “No” was never going to be in my vocabulary.

There are so many misconceptions about what it takes to donate. But the truth is, if you’re a match, you could be someone’s literal shot at life. Potentially decades of it.

Please sign up. You might never get the call. But if you do, I hope it’s the easiest yes you ever make.

If you have questions, ask me.
And if you want to know if I think you’re sexy? It’s an automatic yes if you’re on the registry 😚

Posted with Susan’s permission. by @theschenkler

Got my first haircut in three years last month and as you can see from the tent in photo 3 I was pretty excited! by @theschenkler

by @theschenkler

get yourself a friend who will split a garden membership with you and take both the best and worst pictures of you by @theschenkler

yes, that is the @boschtoolsna 165ft laser measure

no, I didn’t need more than my trusty step stool to switch out a couple lightbulbs but that’s so clearly not the point by @theschenkler

365 Days | ״we went to dance, when will we return?” by @theschenkler

10/10 would be your friend even if we weren’t sisters. hbd best friend. i love you (and us). ✨💕🥳 by @theschenkler