RALEIGH, North Carolina- In the sad and surprising turn of events, the North Carolina Education Lottery has announced that ‘lightning struck twice’ for a single lottery winner. In a state where education funding is sometimes questionable and ever so often, we’re told is less than adequate, one lucky individual had the rare chance to win the lottery not once, but twice. It’s quite a positive example of what Lady Luck looks like, isn’t it?
Forced to remain anonymous, the two winning tickets were sold at two different locations- a Circle K convenience store in Apex and at a Publix grocery store located in Matthews according to lottery officials. Once the decision had been made to award the player two separate jackpots, he has since earned a whopping $2 million in prizes – or as we like to say – just enough to have one bad investment.
While some people literally get paid to study and play the lottery as a full-time job, it’s important to remember the real reason the state lottery was established – to fund North Carolina’s schools. As everyone knows, education is not a high priority in many aspects of the government in the US. The need for updated textbooks, better classrooms, and properly paid teachers is becoming more and more important as teachers fight for their rights in their states.
So it’s quite curious to me when we find out the name of the anonymous winner, who one would assume is a North Carolina citizen, exactly what kind of exciting purchases they’ll plan to make. Once the media breaks the news that two separate lotteries were won by the same person, it’s not hard to imagine neighbors taking a double take as they walk past a new, over-the-top house built by a millionaire environmentalist who never leaves the house to make changes in the world. Maybe the winner can then build a large mini-golf course on their property with a trophy room, since it looks like they’ll never have to play the lottery again.
But let’s not forget, even if they did build that mini-golf course and clean out the local home improvement store, at the end of the day, the education lottery is specifically supposed to be funding education, not lavish lifestyle choices. As North Carolinians like to say – there’s nothing like being educated with the latest addition of textbooks, and that beautiful ‘new school smell.’
It’s not clear if the winner is originally from North Carolina, or a transplant from somewhere else who shows no interest in the local schools in the state. Although it should be mentioned, if you are the winner, and thinking about reading this news, the school systems in North Carolina could use some saving.
In the end, congratulations to the anonymous lottery winner on winning not one, but two jackpots, it’s not the kind of news you hear every day. Do they have any intention of investing the prize money, or is it destined to be a reckless shopping spree? Maybe they’ll surprise us all and invest some of that money in our children’s education. But then again, how often does lightning really strike twice?
