Before you start asking for the requisite "balato" which every winner seems to be cursed with let me just bluntly say that the prize is not even enough to be passed around to my favorite charities particularly the Benguet Water District and Beneco.
Anyway, we have this singing contest in the academy, which was patterned (maybe) from the American Idol.
My creative co-teachers added the raffle draw feature where every admission ticket you buy entitles you to a chance to win a cash prize.
And as I have mentioned, I have had the unexplainable luck of getting the prize each time -- not that I am complaining that is.
In fact, I would love for it to go on and on and on, ad infinitum but even at this very moment, there is this niggling doubt at the back of my mind that it will ever happen.
The first time I won, I was telling a co-teacher about my bad luck when it comes to games of chance.
That I have never won anything in my life -- not even a measly trip for two to Singapore or some such place.
Before I knew it, they were calling my name. So I said to myself, "God has a weird sense of humor."
The second time around, I bought tickets because I wanted to vote for two of my students who joined the contest.
For the most part of the competition, I was in one of the classrooms rewriting essays while listening to the contestants sing their pieces.
Ours is a small campus so we normally hold the competition in the corridor. Less formal perhaps but it what it lacks in sophistication it makes up for pure energy and camaraderie.
Naturally, I was not expecting to win either. I believe in misfortune striking thrice but good fortune? That's another story.
I am pessimistic to the core but so is a big percentage of the population.
And who can blame them, after all the "great things" that's been happening to this country since we decided we'd rather suffer under the thumb of our fellow Filipinos than prosper under the rule of foreigners.
But I digress. I seem to be doing a lot of that lately. I am digressing again? Will someone put me out of my misery already!
The third time was last Thursday. We were there at the back row perfecting our "heckling" talents when the emcee announced the drawing of lots.
To insure perfect secrecy, the organizers, again, my untiring and creative co-teachers sealed the boxes.
So there I was sitting on a bench innocently looking on thinking of imaginative ways to make my friends' lives miserable when lo and behold! The emcee was calling out my name.
I won! I won! Dumbstruck is not enough to describe how I felt.
God does not have a weird sense of humor after all. He (She) has a very very weird sense of humor.
But who am I, a mere mortal to question his sense of fun? The envelope sits folded and unopened within the nether regions of my hobo bag as a reminder of all this.
Naturally, when my moolah runs out, I would dig through all the other stuff (I think I saw a piece of candy a friend gave me last October but I still have to check.) in there to get to that cold hard cash.
So, am I lucky? A lot of people in the academy think so at this point.
Some even suggested I should play the lottery. Believe me I tried.
My cousin's kind and motherly cook used to bet everyday at the neighborhood lotto outlet in Sampaloc.
To break the monotony of my "self-review" life, she would include me ever so often.
Did I win? No. Did I pass? That's a resounding "No" as well.
Where was my lady luck when I most needed her? Probably sunning herself in St. Tropez with the rest of the "fortunate" celebrities.
Suffice to say she was not around when I thought I most needed her.
But if there is anything I learned with the passing of years is that luck (other people would call it fate -- even divine providence) smiles on people in her own time.
She can not be forced. You don't see me lining up to play the lottery do you?
(February 3, 2008 issue) Write letter to the editor. Click here. Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here.
