Luck gives us the flexibility to explain the unexplainable. Whether it’s the so called “lucky” socks that you refuse to wash or the luck of the draw, there are some instances that call for luck.

Otherwise why would the word exist?

Luck can be very easily confused and misused when someone is too modest to brag that they were qualified to receive that award or prepared enough to earn that A on a test. It’s an instance when chance just is or isn’t in your favor leading to failure or success rather than the previous work put in by oneself.

When I was a sophomore in high school, I decided to take the plunge and try out for LION, and out of 32 applicants I was one of 16 to be chosen for staff. Now, the odds may have been 50/50, but the real part about LION that confirms luck for me has to do with the relationships I made. LT is a school of 4,000 students with 2,000 at each campus, making it almost impossible to really get to know everyone in your grade.

As junior year progressed and I began to get more comfortable in room 220 with all my fellow jerds (journalism nerds), I created new friendships and grew closer to one person in particular. This person grew to be my best friend, and eventually my significant other, whom I would have never met if not for this club. I had no other classes with him junior year, which would have caused us to never have crossed paths- leading to a missed chance. Now, love is not the only lucky thing that can happen, but it seems to be the most obvious and omnipresent in our society obsessed with fate and destiny, but I see truth in it.

Each of us has our own little quirks and superstitions that only make sense to do if luck is on the table. When you knock on wood, it’s not just for fun, but because you believe that it will bring you good fortune or prevent the negative statement that you just mentioned. From an outsider’s look, luck seems a bit crazy, but in that craziness you can find people who are committed to believing in the balance of chance, and more importantly, in the power of the unexpected. For it is the unexpected fortunes that bring the biggest happiness. When one is so caught up in the chances of landing a spot on the basketball team or winning the upcoming game, it becomes exhausting trying to figure out your odds. Because some things in life aren’t meant to be equated and pondered over for hours; they are meant to have your full faith put into them. Some things happen because of random connections you have made that cannot be deduced to reason or probability; life comes will unexpected and unexplainable events.

Without luck, there would not be explanations for the extraordinary things that happen to all of us. Being lucky makes the unexpected successes more enjoyable to experience when they otherwise could be deduced to odds or some long drawn out mathematical explanation. Not everything in life is numbers or has to have an explanation, and there’s a beauty behind that.