I recently read an article in The Atlantic about the perception of luck and why it matters more than most of us think. In fact, it was called, “Why luck matters much more than you think.”
It said that while some are thankful for what they have earned and attribute their good fortune to luck, others believe that it was hard work that allowed them to achieve what they had.
It’s a funny thing, luck.
I left my job in California to substitute teach in Klawock and help my mom after her health issues, if she needed it. At the end of the school year, there was no full-time teaching job in Klawock. Then I applied for an opening in Ketchikan and didn’t get it. Maybe Alaska wasn’t meant to be. Mom was fine, so maybe I took a leap, but the universe was telling me Alaska was just for my summers.
My old job in California opened up.
Luck. Fate.
I applied, but didn’t get an interview thanks to a paperwork issue, but a second English position opened in the same department. At a school with little English department turnover, there had been two people leave within months. Since Mom was fine, I could go back and continue my life.
Destiny. No question.
The California job would be there, but July was almost over and it hadn’t posted, so I obviously couldn’t apply. I was banking on promises. I bought a ticket south and started packing my truck. I’d get to California just in time for in-service. The job would post, I would apply and be back in the California groove with a fresh new perspective after a year in Alaska.
Three days before I was to board the ferry, another English position opened in Ketchikan. At a school with little English department turnover, there had been two people leave within months.
Weird. Was that Destiny vs. Destiny? All the signs said Alaska. Then California. Then Alaska…again. To have four ideal job openings at two ideal schools in the span of two months – not get the first round but have a choice of the same situation the second time around? How does that happen? It doesn’t. But it did.
Luck?
I don’t know.
Maybe it doesn’t matter whether or not we believe in luck, but rather that we appreciate whatever happens in our favor. Maybe it’s just sheer chance. Maybe it’s destiny. Maybe hard work and a willingness to take certain steps invites luck.
I don’t know. What I know is that I’m here and happy.
It reminds me of college. I got into all three to which I applied, but only considered two: the University of Arizona and George Washington. My brother was going to be a senior at GW. Maybe I should go there and get on the basketball team, I thought, because he had earned his way on the team as a walk-on. If nothing else, I could go there and automatically have name recognition. But I went to Arizona, and after a month, never looked back.
Maybe that’s the key. Rather than parsing the reasons for what happened, just be happy it did and make the most of it.
• Jeff Lund writes and teaches out of Ketchikan.
