Hola.
Como esta? My name is Paco and I want to tell you the story of the day my life
changed forever.
It
was a miserable day. Cold and rainy. The kind of day where I couldn’t get dry
or warm. My house had collapsed from the rain. My house was a cardboard box. It
was a darn good box too.
I
had been homeless and living in the alleys, sewers, and bus stops of Seattle
for years. I don’t even remember how many years. Time didn’t have a lot of meaning
for me back then. People always want to know how I ended up homeless. After all
I am a MBA and was once a very successful businessman. My wife and child were
killed in an auto accident. Afterward I shut myself up in our mortgaged to the
hilt home and drank myself into oblivion until I was literally thrown out due
to foreclosure. Eventually I was able to stop drinking. And here I am.
I
was going through the trash looking for a new box. Or some other wonderful
treasure. I found a lottery ticket, a pair of men’s shoes, and a handful of change.
It was a bonanza. I always kept lottery tickets because sometimes people don’t
realize that they have won 1 or 2 dollars. And you would be amazed at the
amount of change that gets thrown away.
I
went to the gas station to get a cup of coffee and check my ticket. Oh coffee.
It is so warm and wonderful. It is the thing I missed the most while I was
homeless. I scanned my ticket and it came up as $5 million. Well, obviously I
thought that was a computer error. But, I may have won something so I took the
ticket to the cashier.
She
scanned the ticket. Her eyes grew very wide and she said in a high shriek, “You
won $5 million!” I couldn’t believe it. I was stunned. My mind started racing
with all the possibilities. Could I find the true owner of the ticket? No. What
should I do with all that money? I stumbled out of the gas station in a daze. I
sat on a park bench and tried to figure out what to do next. Luckily, the lottery
office is here in the city. I had just enough change to ride the bus across town.
I cashed in my ticket and set out to turning my life around.
Using
my MBA and business savvy I was able to increase the $5 million. I lived a very
simple existence in a very cheap apartment. I still lead a simple life but now
I have combined my business and living space. The most important thing to me
was to give back. To help the many homeless people in the Seattle area.
I
started an entirely eco-friendly homeless shelter. Well I guess it’s more like
a compound. A tent city maybe. Whatever you want to call it the people who stay
there help out with the upkeep. We have a garden, a natural filtration system,
recycling, and composting. We offer
substance abuse counseling, job training, and a physical address. We do everything
we can to help these people get back on their feet.
Eventually,
I would like to open facilities across the United States. Every penny I earn,
short of the small amount I need to survive, goes back into this cause.
A
homeless man finds a winning lottery ticket and uses it to fund a self-run eco homeless
shelter. Fate smiled on me that cold and rainy day. I don’t believe that the
reality of what has happened has hit me. It all feels like a wonderful dream. I
am able to have a roof over my head and provide that for others as well. And,
best of all, I can have all the coffee I want.
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