I won the lottery. I worked for nearly twenty-five years. It wasn’t
backbreaking work, but it wasn’t fun or rewarding either, and it didn’t pay
particularly well. I had always wanted to quit. I remember one class in
college that required a lot of group discussion. We had a little trouble
getting along, so a fellow student suggested we play some team-building
games so we would have a better understanding of where our opponents were
coming from. One of the questions was what you would do if you won the
lottery. Everyone else had all these elaborate plans involving buying sports
teams and owning yachts and private jets. I figured I would just take enough
to live on, and donate the rest. They weren’t disappointed in this answer,
but they wanted me to come up with the kinds of charities I was most
interested in. I had to give them a thoughtful answer, and not just be lazy
with it. They actually asked me to do homework that no one else had to do so
they could follow my logic. I didn’t end up winning the millions of dollars
that we talked about during that exercise, but I still held true to my
original answer. I saved up enough money, and finally felt fine about being
a little frivolous, so I began to spend a little on instant win scratchers.
Twenty bucks approximately four times a year. I never exceeded my maximum,
and I managed to win a few times, breaking even twice, and making a five
dollar profit once. Though, that’s not really a fair assessment—is it—since
I spent a lot of cash on losing tickets, so I didn’t truly make anything.
Until I did. I finally won big, and it was under unique circumstances. It
was because I decided to spend more than usual.
The grocery store where I would always buy the tickets started using a
vending machine. You selected which game you wanted to play, inserted your
money, and it would spit it out for you automatically. I know, in 2022,
that’s not a big deal, but it was special back then. I found out later that
mine was the first state to introduce these new machines. I had a little bit
of extra cash on me, and it had been a bit longer than usual since the last
time I played, so I decided to splurge. It sometimes makes me shiver to
think that I almost didn’t do it. I was this close to just sticking to my
normal technique. I won $150,000; I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to call my
boss right then and tell him that I was going to go in another direction.
That was what he had said to me years prior, and he only ultimately hired me
because his first candidate turned out to be terrible at the job. I never
forgave him for it, and I couldn’t wait to return the favor. I had to wait,
though. Maybe I was mistaken. Maybe I was on a prank show. I had to be
patient and careful. I took my ticket to the lottery offices, confirmed the
win, and watched the numbers go up in my bank account. Only then did I quit
my job. I wasn’t a millionaire, but I only spent about $1,000 a month, so it
lasted me a decade, with a few mediocre investments, and a couple of
luxuries just for me. The rest went to charity, as promised. I stopped
playing the scratchers, and just enjoyed my hobbies, which were bowling and
knitting. Boring, I know, but I liked them. Then the money started running
out. It was bound to happen, and I had resigned myself to the fact that I
was going to have to return to the workforce. Hopefully employers would
agree with my life choice, and not hold it against me. On my way back from
my first interview, I stopped by my store, and bought another ticket,
spending thirty bucks like last time. Guess what? I won again; this time,
for $250,000. Funny enough, I got the job, but I went in another direction.
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