What's the coolest thing you've won?

It was more about the way I won.

When I was in elementary school, our class did a cool project that resulted in the promise of a newspaper article. At the time, I thought being in the newspaper was, like, the top thing you could accomplish.

But we were told that only five students would be featured in the accompanying photo.

The photo was to be taken in a few days, so our teacher held a lottery. As each winning name was drawn from a hat, I grew more anxious. I never won anything, and I knew I wouldn't be among the lucky winners.

And I was right.

I was crushed. But in my desperation, I asked, "Can we draw one more name, in case one of the winners is sick on the day of the photo?"

Not only did my teacher agree (which I wasn't expecting--again, nothing ever seemed to work out for me), but my name was drawn as the backup winner!

And then, come photo day--one of the winners was sick!

So, I didn't actually win anything, but this tiny victory still stands out to me decades later. Three things in a row worked out in my favor (for once), and it felt pretty great.

/r/AskReddit Thread