it's a Numbers Game

This is the story of a missed opportunity. And the opportunity, the potential, would have been life-changing at the tender age of 18. 

In 1990, California had already been conducting their statewide lottery for a couple of years and it also happened to be the year I turned 18, I was old enough to buy a ticket to play. That spring semester I was living at my grandmother's in order to graduate the Rancho, the same school I started at my freshman year. So I was sharing my uncle's room rather he was sharing his room with me but that also meant I was sleeping on the floor because he didn't have a spare bed. And he was 25 at the time or about to turn 25, I don't remember if he was working or not but he would only stay up watching late night talk shows including Wally George. So while he'd stay up watching TV, I would fall asleep usually by 11.

I know multiple times throughout my life there have been periods where I do talk in my sleep. This was especially prevalent when I was much younger including into high school age. And on top of that, Grandma's house was also the location of the garage. And if you've read my other stories, the garage and Grandma's house as a whole had a lot of unexplained phenomena occur over the years. So that leads right into that spring semester, me asleep on the floor of my uncle's room and he was awake watching TV and I started talking in my sleep.

My uncle was only half paying attention because I had probably done it multiple times before while I was there. But that following morning he specifically mentioned that I had rattled off a series of numbers. He only remembered four numbers that I had mumbled in my sleep. But he did tell me those numbers that following morning and I thought it was such a bizarre thing to happen. He dropped me off at school and I went about my day didn't, think much of it until the following morning when looking at the paper and recognizing that the four numbers my uncle remembered I prattled off matched four of the six lottery numbers that night. A $60 million dollar prize at the time. 

I think for the next couple of weeks he kept a notepad next to his bed just in case something like that ever happened again. 

I was just randomly remembering that earlier today. How much my life and the lives of those around me could have, would have turned out differently if we had taken the initiative to maybe play those numbers on a whim that morning. 

$60 million paid out in a 20-year annuity, they didn't offer lump sum payments at the time. So $3 million per year before taxes to an 18-year-old?  Pretty dangerous, no?  

Then again, earlier that semester, as the jackpot was ever increasing, my civics teacher took an entire class period to talk about the lottery jackpot and what that money would amount to. The breakdown. Mind you, this was when the jackpot was only $20 million. He got into the minutiae of just how much that kind of money earns you per day, per hour, down to the second lol. 

But he also took the time to discuss how to invest that kind of money. Granted, in the 32 years since he gave us that advice, some of his figures would no longer be applicable. But it was still a solid investment strategy for the time period. 

And I've still retained all that info on the off chance I'm ever lucky enough to fall into that kind of fortune.