I have always been a luckless sod, well, at least in raffles. Goes way back to grade school. During those school raffles and bingo socials, I never got to win anything. Even once. Even just minor prizes. Even that miserable fruit basket wrapped in cheap cellophane. Just once I’d want to be that lucky, undeserving bastard who goes home with a new car, an all-expenses-paid vacation to the deepest, darkest jungles of Borneo, or a brand-new, state-of-the-art Kyowa rice cooker.
I cannot even begin to comprehend how some people are just plain lucky. I know of at least 7 people at work who consistently win big prizes at our company raffles EVERY TIME, EVERY YEAR. Without fail. Does that mean there simply are lucky people in the world?
At a small Christmas party involving present and former co-workers, around 14 people, we had a small raffle as well but with a last-minute twist. Each person draws a name from a bowl and instead of winning a prize, the name drawn is eliminated. The first person drew Cherry and is eliminated. Cherry draws out Froilan and is eliminated, with Cherry exacting a small amount of revenge doing so, and so on. Guess whose name was the LAST to be drawn? Mine, of course. I won the grand prize of a branded body spray. For women. Although I cherished that body spray donated by a friend, I didn’t cherish the thought that, if it were a normal raffle, mine will be the LAST name to be drawn.
So when I did get my name called for a major prize at the Christmas party, imagine my disbelief, as I came there not expecting anything so that my poor little heart won’t be too broken when I didn’t win for the nth year yet again. Like acting out a dream sequence, almost in slow motion, I was the only one to make a sound: a loud, unnerving but unashamed holler of “Whoo-hoo!” like how Homer Simpson does it. At that moment I heard a strange sound. It was the sound of envy. It was eerie silence without the chirping of crickets or the howl of a wolf. For once, I was the person people thought of as the lucky, undeserving bastard who won a raffle.
Sure, it’s just a flat-screen LCD TV and not the underage alien cat-eared tsundere android time-traveling maid that I’ve always, ALWAYS wanted to win in a raffle, but it’s a sign that luck is indeed fickle, and that if you stick around long enough, it may just turn in your favor.
In my case, 6 years in my company. Then the rest of my life before that.
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