Hey you,

Welcome to the 6th edition of The Life You Want.

Every edition will challenge what you’ve heard. 
Enough yapping, lets jump in.

Last month, I had my unluckiest few weeks.

For context, I was moving to my university and needed to get some things in order.

Here’s a breakdown of everything that happened:

The university at the last second asked for an English Test and to get the results to them in a single week.

But most official English Tests take 2 - 4 weeks.

Without this, I won’t get admitted to the uni.

So I somehow found an official English Test that provides the results in 2 days.

Prepared for that in half a day.

Wrote it.

Got my results on time.

Looking good right?

Nah suddenly I got a very bad viral fever.

Not to mention my agent bugging me to go process government documents with this fever.

All because I wanted my VISA in time.

And then when I finally finish the application for my VISA, it got delayed.

So I had to cancel my tickets.

Book new ones (lost a load of money here).

So now we are good right?

Nope…

Suddenly the university contacts me saying they can’t provide accommodation for me.

But a few days ago they had reassured me saying I will get it on time and that I am eligible for it.

This destroyed me.

I had no alternative plan.

All other third party halls either cost too much or were too far away.

So I spent the next few days searching tirelessly.

Then I finally found one.

Nothing near what I was promised by the uni, but I’ll take it.

So this got me thinking,

What is unlucky?
And who is the most unlucky person ever?

Well the first question is simple.

Unlucky is something resulting from misfortune.

But what is misfortune?

Well if my elevator gets stuck today, did misfortune strike me?

If I only get paid $100 for a gig that was supposed to be 150, did misfortune strike me?

Well what if I said that the elevator getting stuck saved me from walking on a particular street, where a gas leak happened to happen?

Is that misfortune? or good fortune?

What is unlucky to one person is just our interpretation of it.

The $100 is a lot of money to a person from a developing country.

To them $100 is a lucky moment.

So as cliche as this may seem:

There is no luck.

We create our own luck - literally.

We decide what is lucky and what is not.

Everytime we take an Uber we never say we’re lucky to have made it out alive.

But we say we’re unlucky if we get into an accident.

So next time you say you’re unlucky, just know that is just your interpretation of an event.

So who is the unluckiest person alive then?

A person who could never catch a break.

Some say it is the guy who was struck by lightning 7 times. (Roy C. Sullivan)

Some say it is the guy who survived both the Hiroshima and the Nagasaki (Tsutomu Yamaguchi)

My ego says it is me (hahaha)

But are we really that unlucky?

Roy Sullivan still survived all those strikes.

Tsutomu Yamaguchi still made it out alive.

I still exist and have time to make you read this:))

So were they lucky? or unlucky?

Because they did survive after all.

They did get their story out.

That is upto interpretation.

But to me, the true unluckiest people in the world aren’t known.

They are faded into history.

They never got their story out.

Their lives were so tragic in such ancient times, that people couldn’t even make records of it.

People who have just become shadows in history.

Faded into obscurity.

Silent echos.

-RT x

Follow me on twitter here.

Until next time :)