I've never considered it out of the ordinary, but I've always had a strong sense that no harm will ever come my way. Consequently, I remain incredibly calm in almost any circumstances. Even if I'm having great money troubles or it seems that events are leading to an almost certain doom, I always know that things will work themselves out. Somehow, enough money will come my way, or I'll find a way to get somewhere I need to be - whatever it may be, and I don't even need to try. At times I've even intentionally pushed it, purposely ignored growing problems while feeling completely assured that they would take care of themselves, and every time they have. I'm not the least bit religious, but I have wondered why I seem to be so lucky. Just a quick accounting:
- I became homeless once about three years back, and the next day, I met a girl that had been in a similar situation who took me in and let me live with her until I could find my own lodging. There wasn't even any romance involved - she was just being nice.
- I drove my ATV off a cliff once when I was ten, but landed in a bush jutting out from the cliffside. I was covered in scratches, but I should have been smashed against the rocky ground.
- I fell asleep at the wheel driving home late at night from a friend's house in high school. My car started to drift underneath a big rig, but it bounced off the tire. One more foot in the wrong direction, and I'm crushed beneath an 18-wheeler.
- On vacation when I was 12, I was playing on the rails at the edge of the Grand Canyon and slipped. My mother just happened to turn around at exactly the same time and caught me.
- Last month my roommate and I were short $20 on rent. Neither of us was going to receive any additional money for another two weeks. Just when she started to get all frantic, I found $20 in a pair of pants that I hadn't worn in a while.
- Four years ago, I was supposed to fly to Boston with a girl I knew. We had the dates planned, but she canceled because something came up right before we bought the tickets. Consequently, I don't know what flight number we would have had and whether our plane would have been flown into the World Trade Center, but we would have been flying from Logan to LAX on September 11.
- Lightning once struck the car my mother was picking me up in, about five seconds after I got in. While there's no guarantee it would have hit me had I not gotten in, it was still pretty thought-provoking.
- I drove with a friend from West Virginia to Los Angeles and his car blew a head gasket twenty feet from my driveway. Not so lucky for him, as he had to spend a lot of money to fix it, but I was damn glad it didn't happen in Oklahoma.
- Coincidentally, we were pulled over and harassed by cops in North Carolina for reckless driving and endangerment, but they let us go. Presumably both because we were on our way to California and because they hadn't witnessed the crime personally (it was called in from a cellphone with a description of our car) and didn't want to set a trial date and call witnesses.
- Not quite as dramatic, but I was something like the hundred-millionth person ever to walk into Disneyland. They gave me a radio/cassette player.
- Not even as dramatic as that, but as reckless as I was a kid, playing all manner of sports, taking camping/hiking vacations, white-water rafting and dirt-biking, and taking more than my fair share of very nasty playground spills, I've never had an injury worse than a minor sprained ankle. I often frustrated my family by never seeming to get sick, even when an infection went through everyone else in the house.
- I was also born way premature at just over 4 lbs, but had no problems whatsoever. I don't consider that one to be such a biggie, but figured I'd throw in anyway.
- A bit different, but a really odd thing always seemed to happen when I was a teenager. Whenever I developed any kind of attraction to a girl I randomly saw around school, even I didn't know her, it always seemed like we'd meet shortly thereafter and she'd become attracted to me and be quite flirtatious. I swear I made no special effort to 'run into her' or anything, but it almost seemed like I could make a girl develop an interest in me just by thinking about her. I never even asked a girl out in high school because they always asked me out, and it was almost always the girl I wanted to ask me out.
In short, it has always seemed like 'someone' up there is looking out for me. Lord knows why, as I've done nothing to deserve it, but still. I even wonder sometimes if my sheer optimism and lack of worry actually molds my future in some way. You can't make this stuff up. I feel like I should write a book about the power of positive thinking or something. If I was more negative and believed bad things could happen to me, would they?