Write on: Musings on the recent Powerball craze

Until recently, I’d never bought a lottery ticket before. Last month, I bought 15.

Yes, I participated in the Powerball madness. Enticed by the insane $1.5 billion jackpot, I was just one more person crowding gas station convenience store lines.

For about two weeks in January, it seemed my entire Facebook newsfeed was intoxicated by thoughts of the lottery as the jackpot grew bigger and bigger.

On a chilly Saturday night before one of the drawings, my boyfriend and I got drinks with my cousin, who was in town. In between catching up on our lives and reminiscing about the bands we used to listen to in high school, we talked about what we would do if we won.

We started with the basics: investing, sharing with our families and donating to causes we believe in. For me, that meant buying my parents a new house and giving to youth and arts organizations.

We all agreed we’d travel the world and ditch our apartments to finally become homeowners. My perfect home would be beautiful but modest, a la a medium-sized home on Highland Road—a house with a porch, stately white columns and gas lanterns.

The longer we talked, the wilder our ideas got—opening a craft cocktail bar similar to The Cove and Olive or Twist—or maybe one specializing in St. Germain cocktails. I suggested a rollercoaster tour of the world, stopping at all the top-ranked theme parks. And while we’re at it, a music festival tour would be pretty great, too.

We all agreed we wouldn’t stop working. We wanted to keep growing creatively—whether it was through writing a book, making a movie, starting a blog.

I loved reading my Facebook friends’ posts about what they’d do if they won, too.

One of my favorite posts came from Tate Tullier (one of our 2016 People to Watch) and his wife, Sarah.

They’d spend the first few million finding cures for diabetes, paralysis, Alzheimer’s and Usher’s syndrome, they wrote. They would invest in deaf organizations. They’d buy an NYC brownstone and open three more businesses in addition to their photography business.

I couldn’t resist clicking every lottery-related article that showed up in my newsfeed. I read it all, good and bad: about past winners dying shortly after claiming their money or getting sued by family members. I read about how to invest and grow the fortune by a half-million a year, about how to pick lawyers and security guards.   

The night the winning numbers were finally announced, I bolted to my computer, excitedly comparing my ticket to what was on the screen.

Nada. Not even close.

I’d known the odds—1 in 292 million—so my twinge of disappointment was small.

Money isn’t everything, but I was still amazed by how inspiring it was to imagine having lots of it. It’s so easy to get caught up in the daily grind and forget to dream about the future. Fantasizing about winning reminded me to.

It put in perspective what I really want in life—to work hard and make a difference. And yes, travel and buy a house someday.

I didn’t win the lottery, but daydreaming about winning is probably better than the real thing, anyway.