Every holiday season without fail, my grandmother puts a lottery ticket in my stocking. Each cousin, child, aunt, uncle, and parent gets one. None of us typically ever won more than a couple of dollars, and a $20 prize was more exciting than a white Christmas. My family doesn’t have very many traditions, but the ones we do have I hold dear. We have Doritos on the table every Easter before we eat dinner (yes, the nacho cheese covered chips). The lottery ticket is usually one of the most exciting parts of Christmas day, even when I don’t win anything at all.

One Christmas morning, 8 year old me won the lottery; and she won big. Will she buy a house? Will she put it in savings for her future college tuition? She had the entire world at her fingertips. She scratched the lottery ticket and won her first prize; a number some of her friends likely couldn’t even count to. Each time she scratched the coin against the ticket, she won even more.

I was about to become the number one customer at Toys R Us. I had so much money I didn’t even know where to begin! My mind flooded with the thought of how many newspapers I’d be on the cover of. ‘Local girl wins the lottery’, it would read. I could hardly wrap my brain around how different my future would be. I had heard of lottery winners on the news before, but never would have thought I would become a winner myself.

As I kept revealing my winnings, my family did not seem to share my excitement. They thought it was cool, but their reaction was underwhelming. Did they think I wouldn’t share with them? Maybe they thought I would buy a unicorn and move up to the North Pole. I disregarded their reaction as I was too excited to pay much attention. I mean, I just won the lottery! I walked around with the ticket for the rest of the day, I almost considered making it a plate at the table for dinner.

Every Christmas since then, I have giggled as I am scratching off my ticket. As a 17 year old, I can look back and realize why they reacted differently than I. When I revealed my winnings, I had no other care in the world. I was so excited about the story I’d get to tell after winter break. Turns out, my family wasn’t too jealous of my prize. They thought it was cool, and they were happy for me; they just weren’t as enthused with the whopping 400 dollar winning that I was. Apparently, houses nowadays go for a bit more than that. Unicorns do too.

I never did make the news or have any articles about me, but I don’t mind writing my own. I can only hope I have another Christmas with as much magic as I felt in that moment.