... choices follow us for the rest of our lives. A string of choices I made two years ago affected not only the course of my life, but my entire perspective about good luck, bad luck, and personal decisions. In the spring of 2001, I was working for a cemetery business where we were creating autobiographies to preserve the memories of the deceased. I worked with two brothers, Bret ... wasn't going to be a very good outcome. I arrived at the airport approaching the curbside check-in counter. The airport attendant told me that my flight to Virginia had been canceled. Bad news continued to foll...

• Word Count: 1272
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... parcel of land. They envisioned 300 to 600 units in an upscale town-house community. This would cause a huge problem for High Bridge. The houses themselves would not be so bad but the kids, kindergarten through the eighth grade that would spill into the school system would definitely hurt the local homeowners property taxes. The school is already at capacity and ... the debt is repaid, annual profits in the range of $2 million. Now that is a turnaround. Earlier I said a successful turnaround must consist of careful strategic planning, desperation, and good old fashion luck. I think all ...

• Word Count: 933
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... Joy and the subsequent car accident lead Ignatius to believe that Fortuna is spinning him downward, but, he does not realize that he creates his own luck by his actions and words. He is the agent of his own undoing. "Fortune" is of his own making. The time between the unfortunate accident ... lofty language and ideas stem from his extensive schooling. For example, he writes about "...the breakdown of the Medieval system, the god of Chaos, Lunacy, and Bad Taste [gaining] ascendancy"(25). Ignatius reads Boethius and extends the same ideas into his own life, believing in the "rota Fortunae...

• Word Count: 2309
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

... to laugh and tell you not to come back again. Another example of this is when you go to a car dealership and a man wearing old clothes that smell and look bad tries to sell you a used 82 Buick you probably will say "I need to go home and think about it". Yet if a well groomed man in new Gucci suit comes out ... our way home we stopped at a little pizza place. We were not sure if we really wanted to go in it looked kind of dirty we went in any way. Luck was in our favor it was good pizza then the biggest hicks I have ever seen walked in and ordered a pizza as they were eating it they ask...

• Word Count: 1478
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... influenced heavily by sacred sorrow songs, work songs, and spirituals. Southern blues was used to express struggles and sorrowful occurrences that were common in the African American communities. Lost love, bad luck, discrimination and loss of a loved one are among other themes common in blues. Blues was considered "the Devil's music" by most Christians. During the Second World War, blues ... ...

• Word Count: 1900
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... around 1795, leaving him alone with his four brothers and five sisters to the care of relatives and neighbors. Matthews turned up in Manhattan as a successful carpenter in 1808. His luck ended in the market revolution. "Having done all-too-well early on, he badly stretched his resources in trying to enlarge his store" (62). He went bankrupt and his reputation ... been an agony for everyone. Two of the Matthews children had died. The family's fall into nomadic poverty was complete, making a mockery of Robert Matthew's earlier transient respectable independence. Robert's bad moods now cam...

• Word Count: 1174
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... beloved wife Virginia died. He received great recognition from this poem as well, but he continued to have financial difficulties as he had all his life. It appeared that his luck was beginning to change in 1849, however, when he became engaged to another woman and also landed a job as the editor of a New York magazine. After his acceptance of the ... alone." This shows how all of the women to whom Poe gave his heart to left him for one reason or another. He explains that he could only see the bad things in life, never the good. He claims that a cloud, in the form of a demon, is the rea...

• Word Count: 2529
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

... of the river there were a lot of houses that probably enjoyed the "view" that they had in front of them. To tell you the truth, it wouldn't be all that bad living across from the levee as a kid because there is more than enough land to play any kind of sport you want, but it would be a bit annoying with all ... Huey P. Long Bridge. I figured that they had to fix up the coastline down by the bridge at least so passer bys could have a little something to admire, but no such luck. The land was as dirty as previous locations, and there weren't even trees surrounding the mud to make it look ...

• Word Count: 1668
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... after shaking hands and eating just as a sanitary precaution. Trump also includes a chapter on investing. He won't give out investing advice for one good reason. If the advice turns out bad, he is the first person to be blamed. However, if the advice earns an investor millions, he or she is quick to forget where that great advice came from. For ... this reason, when someone asks him when or where to invest their money, he simply replies, "Good Luck." Trump finishes off this book with a short chapter on ingredients for success. This briefly sums up his successful strategies and ideas tha...

• Word Count: 816
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... after shaking hands and eating just as a sanitary precaution. Trump also includes a chapter on investing. He won't give out investing advice for one good reason. If the advice turns out bad, he is the first person to be blamed. However, if the advice earns an investor millions, he or she is quick to forget where that great advice came from. For ... this reason, when someone asks him when or where to invest their money, he simply replies, "Good Luck." Trump finishes off this book with a short chapter on ingredients for success. This briefly sums up his successful strategies and ideas tha...

• Word Count: 817
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... my father is like the evil arch-nemesis, that one enemy who cannot be overcome. So I needed some help in this ordeal. Help came in the form of some very bad luck. I needed to take a summer school course, or risk not graduating on time. We decided that it would be best if I took the course in New York. Smooth-talk may have ... ...

• Word Count: 466
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School