Change of tide

There is a colossal wave lurching towards me down the street I grew up on. I stand in the middle of the road contemplating my options: run or stay put and drown. If I run I could survive but there is a possibility that I will have to run forever and on my way I may face even greater horrors. Who knows what else could be tumbling down other roads ready to swallow me up. I can see the water destroying houses, cars and people. Wood, animals and dirt have clogged the water that I imagine must have been blue at some point. I take one last breath and let the water kill me but not before I thrashed and struggled all the while regretting my decision and wishing I had just fucking ran.

What is a Luck Point?

You can't hold it, put it in a special box or hang it on the refrigerator. It is not something you can see, touch or even feel. You have no idea that your Luck Points are accumulating until they explode like fireworks and you find yourself in a magical moment and realize that you have done something to deserve this moment. I first came across luck points my junior year of college after the aforementioned Strokes concert. How in the world did I become lucky enough to get front row tickets to that concert? Why had those 4 boys chosen us? All the other terms for events like this just didn't seem to encapsulate what actually happened. It wasn't karma, or coincidence or good timing. Luck describes it well but how exactly did I get to be so lucky? This is when I started to attribute my good luck to Luck Points. When you do something for someone else, or even yourself, you receive luck points that will be cashed in at a later time. I don't know how many you receive each time or how many you need to cash in. I made up the idea so I guess I can just make up those numbers but I would rather leave it a mystery for now. It's not about the numbers anyway.
So what did I do that gave me enough points to get front row at The Strokes? All I can think of is that I bought my best friends ticket for her and surprised her with it. If I had not done this it would have just been my sister, her friend and me and maybe those boys would have kept on looking for a foursome and we never would have known it was like to feel so lucky. Maybe during the summer I did something nice for my family or put in extra effort at work. I don't know, but I do know that buying that ticket for Kristin was the best thing I've ever done.
I think Luck Points is a form of hope. It is the hope that how you are living your life will amount to something. It is the hope that one day someone will do something nice for you in return. I don't want to make it seem as though I am making a good versus evil blog where good people receive luck points and bad people receive...bad luck points, I just want to share my stories. I know not everyone believes in luck and some people think that the only kind of hope is false hope but they can make their own blog. This is for me, and you.

"Courage, it would seem, is nothing less than the power to overcome danger, misfortune, fear, injustice, while continuing to affirm inwardly that life with all its sorrows is good; that everything is meaningful even if in a sense beyond our understanding; and that there is always tomorrow." -Dorothy Thompson

The Strokes

My first experience with luck points (that I can remember) came at The Strokes concert at the Bank of America Pavilion in Boston where I was an undergrad at Emmanuel College. I was with my best friend, Kristin, my sister Chelsea and her best friend Molly. We had modest seats- nothing spectacular but we could see the stage. We begrudgingly watched the opening act (Wolfmother) and noticed the many open seats in the front of the venue. What is the possibility of sneaking into one of those seats? After the horrible opening act we decided to stake out the joint and see if it would be possible to get a seat closer to the stage. The menacing security men at each section deterred us and we gave up, moving on to the merch table to my sister could get a t-shirt. We reached the tent and as my sister approached the table and I joined her, I saw 4 guys talking to Kristin and Molly and simply thought these guys were hitting on them. I hear Kristin say, "Oh my God, are you serious?" and see a security guard approach them and he reaches for something.
4 tickets are in Kristin's hand and the security guard reaches out to inspect them. I immediately think that we have been duped and this security guard is going to kick all of us out for some reason. I'm an overly cautious person. He looks at the tickets and tells us ther are legit. They are 4 first row tickets. These boys had come only to see Wolfmother (!) and had no interest in seeing The Strokes and saw us four girls and decided to gift the tickets to us. We were hysterical. Everything after this is a blur. I remember walking down the aisle with out sacred tickets in hand and seeing the ushers looking at us with praise and moving us down the aisle until we reached the first row. We showed the usher our tickets and she exclaimed, "congratulations girls!" and we took our places front and center and had the time of our lives.
If we had stayed searching for a way to get seats up front, or if my sister hadn't wanted to get a t-shirt we would have missed that opportunity. Those 4 boys, who I still wonder about and wish to thank, if they had not seen us, who knows what they would have done with those tickets. They made our night. My interest in The Strokes has waned since then but that concert holds a place in my mind as the moment I realized I was blessed and cemented my belief in luck. Luck may just be good timing, or coincidence, which I don't doubt but I feel as though I am one of those people who are luckier than most. Things just work out for me.

Together again like the beginning
It all works somehow in the end
The things we did, the things you hide
And for the record, it's between you and I
-The Strokes "Barely Legal"

Welcome

I don't have a plan for my life। I have ideas, hopes and dreams but there is not a goal or endpoint I am racing towards. What I do with my life has a kind of randomness to it and I sometimes don't take it all seriously. You will come to find out that I am impatient, irresponsible and sometimes just an asshole among other things. But despite my sometimes paltry life, I have experienced moments where my randomness and fate seem to collide and result in some luck. Luck Points is the name of my blog and will be discussed further in later posts but I will start off now by telling you that everyone has luck points and when you cash those points in, you just may experience one of the greatest moments of your life. And although I don't think I have done anything entirely extraordinary with my life I have somehow received an endless supply of luck points. This is my journey to figure it all out.