I am a firm believer in luck. I also think if you are a kind person, then you will receive the same kindness back. I don’t know what I did to deserve what happened the first semester of my junior year, but it proves my point that that luck(or just bad luck) is real.
Everyone always says junior year is the worst, but my junior year was starting off on the right track. I was getting good grades, and going to San Diego with my mom. We were going to travel along the PCH to Malibu. At this point, I was a fresh driver in a car I got for my 16th birthday. Two days before my trip to San Diego, I got badly rear-ended driving to school. It happens, though, and I am glad no one got hurt. My mom still made me go to the first block, even though I was crying. On a positive note, My mom and I got our nails done that day.
My car was in the shop for a while, so I drove my parent’s car to school(for any seniors reading, no, I did not park on campus). While driving home one day, I heard a clunk but did not think much of it. Once I got home, I looked and couldn’t find my phone. I located my phone with the FindMy app. Turns out that “clunk” was my phone that I left on top of the car, so I got in the car to get it. Once I found it, I realized that it was run over so many times that the case fell off, the earbuds I had wrapped around it were paper thin, and my phone had more cracks than the Saharan Desert. I got a new phone, but it didn’t have a sim card, so I lost all of my photos that I didn’t upload to my iCloud. The worst part, though, was that I didn’t do my BeReals for four days.
Not long after this, I filled my car with diesel on accident(what is the difference between gas and diesel anyway?) and had to drive my parent’s car to school again. When I was backing up, the door got caught in the ground and overextended. Basically, the door broke. The next day, I needed a turkey for NHS, so I went to Harris Teeter in the broken door car(which had a bungee cord holding it in place), sobbing, listening to “Last Christmas” on the radio station that has holiday music way too early. I get my turkey, go to the register, and the lady asks how much it was, and I say, “four-zero-zero.” She proceeds to say, “Are you sure?” I say yes. She goes to check, comes back, and says it’s 4 dollars. I start sobbing again and say I’m sorry that’s what I meant to say. I didn’t bring a bag, so I was wobbling to the car, lugging a huge turkey, and, once again, sobbing. Did I mention that I forgot to take a photo of me turning in the turkey, which was needed for proof that I donated?
It’s easy to blame bad luck on something that was definitely my own fault. Most of the stories I’ve shared are caused by my carelessness. You know when your parents would tell you to eat your veggies because there are kids who are starving? Problems similar to mine are real and suck, but compared to others, they aren’t as life-threatening. Perspective is important in every scenario. It’s ok to wallow, but it’s good to laugh at what happened and understand that we are human; we make mistakes and deserve grace. Perspective leads to growth(I am more careful with expensive equipment now).
Sure, you can chalk my first semester up to coincidence or my carelessness, but maybe there was some bad luck there…of course, it depends on your perspective 🙂