my mom is a woman who Enters Contests. like. all the fucking time. any sweepstakes or giveaway she sees she enters. idk why this is a thing she is so fixated on but she does it. we’ve won some things sometimes. tickets to see movies, tickets to random shows, once we even one Ellen Degeneres’s 14 Days of Giveaways around xmas time and I got my first laptop and my sister got her first smartphone. but sometimes we still poke fun at my mom bc we think her contest hobby is silly and the odds of us winning aren’t good enough to bother

but like…..a week and a half ago we won a car. a new 2019 car. a new 2019 SPORTS car. and one of those over-sized checks with lots of zeroes on it. 

and guys…like i don’t even know what all those zeroes on that check with go towards. i don’t know what bills will be paying off or what vacations we’ll go on or how we’re gonna spend the money we get when we sell the sports car, but seeing the look on my impoverish, depressed parents’ faces when they tell people about their good fortune is honestly so fucking great. 

my parents had NOTHING. they don’t really have a lot of friends. they have absolutely no money ever, forcing me and my sisters to often take up the burden of paying for a lot of our groceries and household bills bc they can’t afford them. and they have no hobbies besides sitting on the couch and watching Wheel of Fortune every night (mostly to see if mom won the contest at the end of every episode, bc like i said, the woman loves her contests). 

and idk. it’s just really nice to see that they have something to be proud of and brag about. dad drove the sports car to work to show his co-workers, my mom told everyone in her family, and everyone is so happy for us and even a little bit jealous. and i know it’s petty to be happy people are jealous of you, but honestly when you live in the dirt and dust and mold part of society it’s so fucking cool to have something in your life that other people wish they had. 

i haven’t seen my parents this happy in like….close to ten years. 

idk. it’s been nice to see them smile and have a little bit of hope that things might get better.