Luck in Life

I have often wondered why it was my fortune in life sucked compared to others that I have come to know. It seemed to me that the universe was unfair, that those who were highly deserving of a better fate did not get what they deserved. Just think of the single mother fighting to raise her new-born, think of the honest sales guy that had a sale snaked from him, think of those people that show up to work everyday, on-time, and remain loyal to a company for dozens of years but get the pink slip before everybody else. It seems to me that surely, life is unfair with the distribution of luck. 

I thought long and hard about this, for no particular reason other than that I had time; reflecting upon my own life as the hard-working student who was too allergic to alcohol to even try to party. I thought, "Heck, even if I wanted to party, I wouldn't have any friends that would be there to watch my back in case I needed ICU or the ER!" Even now, at the age of 21, I remain a single man living at home with his parents. And as I dwelled on my past, things just seemed worse and worse and worse. This is just as it seemed to me. As I reminisced upon every ounce of bad luck, I began thinking... well, then again, I do have my entire house paid for... I never really made loads of friends in high school, but nobody really hated me either... And come to think about it, while I have two jobs and go to school full-time, I always seem to slide by with a higher grade than the other kid that has nothing BUT time to party. Hm... Maybe I am luckier in life than I thought...

I guess luck has always been what I made of it. I never realized it, but while I failed in many things in life, I subconsciously learned to grow from those experiences. I learned to look at the optimistic side of things and ended up becoming a better person altogether. While my past was not filled with the rambunctious joy that an immature teenager would have experienced, my past was still filled with laughter created from time spent with family. The reason why any holiday season seemed just like any other day of the year was truly because it WAS just any other day of the year. I live at home, and probably bound to remain single my whole life, but I am able to enjoy every day as if it was a holiday. I also get more shots at random, suprirse gifts throughout the entire year too!

...So, I might not be the guy that wins that million dollar lottery drawing, and I definitely did not win that brand new car, but now that I think about it, I did win a free Xbox 360 and Halo 3! That to me is a million dollars. But that's just me. What about the single mother, the poor salesperson, and the ex-employee? I adjusted my perceptual lens, and I thought well, the single mother is more likely to enjoy the company of her grandchildren at a younger age and is going to experience a different kind of joy than the normal lady, the poor salesperson is more likely to demonstrate growth over the long-run having learned his lesson the first time (not to mention the fact that he still has friends to talk to about the problem), and the ex-employee demonstrates the qualities that are difficult to find in an ideal leader, which thereby makes him more desireable in a management capacity with greater pay and more job satisfaction. Huh, the silver lining truly does exist... Life -- in all its grandeur -- has a funny way of playing with irony. To me, all the luck that one bears is more luck than any other person, but it just takes the trained eye to see that luck clearly. If ever I awaken to feel dissatisfaction with my life, I will look back to this blog, I will think back to my past, and I will remember that for whatever reason for my dissatisfaction, my overall luck is strong. I am the luckiest man I know and I will continue to thrive as the luckiest man ever if I so choose to walk that path.

... I guess, what I'm trying to say is, I shouldn't give up on myself, the world hasn't given up on me.