Luck Be a Lady

What is the luckiest number?

What is the unluckiest number?

Remember your answers. We'll get to a point.




During a recent conversation with my effay* Sarah, I realized getting selected for an awesome travel opportunity has happened to me before.

'I really want to go to D.C.,' said Sarah, thumbing through a Drury alumni magazine with a picture of the Capitol Rotunda on the cover.

'It's awesome. I loved it.' I replied, ready to discuss all of the cool parts of D.C.

'Wait, why did you go there?' she inquired.

'In high school, I had to give a speech and I won this trip...' I trail off.

This conversation is an immediate epilogue to discussing GSE details.

And it hits me.

This isn't the first time this happened. Luck has struck me twice. Scratch that. Thrice.

In high school, my junior year, everyone in the class (yep, all 14 of us) had to write this essay.

The teacher chose two to submit to a local electrical cooperative. The other high schools in the service area also submitted essays. Out of those, a few were selected to present their essay, and two were chosen to take part in the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour in Washington, D.C.

I was selected. (I suppose my career in teaching public speaking was written.)

At 17, I invade D.C. with 1300 other teenagers as part of this crazy, awesome week touring our nation's Capitol.

7 years later, randomly (like drawing names out of a hat random) I won another dream trip to Mexico.

And now, 13 years later, I have this awesome opportunity to travel to Central America with the GSE.

Now, think back to your answers. I think the majority of you probably selected the following (and Google tells me I am correct).

What is the luckiest number? 7

What is the most unlucky number? 13

These are my favorite numbers in the world. 713. My birthdate. And I would be completely remised if I didn't say I am totally in love with my birthday and that specific date.

I write this not to say I am incredible at writing essays, or speaking in public, because I"m pretty sure most experts would say I'm sub par.

Nor do I think crazy numerology had anything to do with  it.

But who knows? Maybe life sometimes gives you something that is just on your side.

Truth be told, I think it's a mixture of many things, mainly the willing to try and a little luck. All of these opportunities took some initiative out of me. I had to be willing to try. I had to apply myself, both figuratively and literally. Even when my name was drawn out of a hat, I had to have a form filled out and signed by multiple people before I could even insert my name in the hat. A lot of people didn't do this, just because they didn't think they would be selected. However, my thought was that someone had to be selected, why not me? This goes along with my mantra, If not me, then who?

With everything in life, I take personal responsibility. If I don't do this, who else will be willing? Who else can? This often times leads me to over-exert myself, but it has also gave me the initiative to put forth the work needed to be able to get a pretty incredible return.

I use this philosophy on everything except the lottery.




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*You may be asking yourself, what in the world is an effay? Well, it derived from saying BFFA (best friends forever and always, duh) and quickly turned into FA,which now has evolved into effay. Just a quick reminder that I am and always will be a giant nerd.