"Dream House Raffle, how can I help you?" About 80 times a day I get to repeat this over and over again. Working for a lottery is probably one of the most fascinating things I've ever experienced. People willingly will drop 150 bucks just to get their one chance in 40,000 of winning our grand prize. Now granted, there are a lot of people who call genuinely being generous and enter for the sake of the charity, but unfortunately you get A LOT of people who TRULY believe that they are that one lucky winner. LoL ...math.
Here's the raffles I work for if anyone's curious.....
It's easy to sit at your computer and think about how even the chance of you being the one to make the transaction for the winning ticket is super unlikely. I would sometimes wonder what it would feel like to one morning answer your phone and hear them say that you are that lucky person who beat all the overwhelming odds and won the lottery.
Today my opinion has changed about what it really means to be lucky. I answered one phone call with my usual dream house greeting and waited hearing nothing but silence. I was just about ready to hang up thinking no one was on the line, but after a few seconds I was able to catch about two or three words, then a long pause, a struggle for another word, a pause, four or five tries at a single syllable, and another long pause. The whole conversation continued at this pace as this man talked to me with his stammer. Every desperate struggle to form a sentence as he stuttered caused my heart to ache. I've never imagined before how it would feel every day of your life having things to say and having such a challenge trying to express it. I had to take a second to gather myself after saying goodbye before taking the next call. And what hurt me even more was how smooth and quickly my next conversation went, knowing the previous gentleman has never had that experience of gliding through a conversation without hesitation or a second thought.
I think perhaps part of the reason I'm so sensitive about this is because Mitch and I literally just watched "The King's Speech" the night before.
(Which, by the way, was absolutely amazing. We went on a date to Mcmenamins because they totally had a PG-13 version playing)
(Which, by the way, was absolutely amazing. We went on a date to Mcmenamins because they totally had a PG-13 version playing)
I guess what I'm trying to say with all this is that I realized how lucky I truly am and how blessed I've been in every way. I have been given so much and everyday take so many tiny things for granted, like being able to speak a complete sentence. I can walk, I can see, I have an education, I live in this great time with so much convenient technology, I fall asleep in a warm bed every night, I have the most amazing family, I have a job, I have a car, I live in a free country, I'm healthy, I have a computer I can blog with, I have my church, I have my husband and we are so much in love! I have already won the lottery.
:) :) :) :) :)
Amen, sweet Jesse :) Thank you for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteSuch a great post!! We loved that movie, too!!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the job, Jesse? It sounds interesting. It's true that we have so many blessings. Just today as I sank onto our soft sofa, I thought, we're so blessed to have comfortable furniture; there are some people who don't have any. And even though I grumble sometimes about folding so many socks each week in the laundry, I think of the people who may have only one or two pairs. Thank you for sharing and for the movie recommendation too.
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