
“You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.” –Cormac McCarthy
My alarm didn’t go off the other day and though I woke up just 10 minutes later, it still meant I left for work late and was in turn late to work. I was panicked the whole drive because I’m new at this organization and I have staffing meetings first thing in the morning. I didn’t want to give off the image that I’m lazy or unreliable. I drove safely but quickly along the freeway only to hit a massive wall of traffic. At a dead stop I contacted my boss to let him know and proceeded to panic in traffic at 10 miles an hour. After about 20 minutes I finally saw the hold up and realized that if I had been on time this morning I probably would have been in the middle of the four car accident I was seeing.
All morning I was thinking about how if I didn’t have bad luck I wouldn’t have any luck at all. And maybe that’s true. I was still late to work and late to the meeting but my bad luck prevented me from a really nasty car accident. I’ll never know if I would have been in the pile that day but I can’t help but read this quote and think about it. I may have bad luck and it may seem constant but there is no doubt in my mind that bad luck saves me from so much worse and I just don’t see it.
Got bad luck? Be grateful because it really could be so much worse. Bad luck is still luck after all!
Sarah Deats
Sarah Deats is the Hope Inc. Stories Inspiration Engineer. Her goals are to make a connection with everyone that she can while building community, spreading hope, and sparking change. She believes that while life may not be easy, it is never lived alone.