I don’t believe in luck. I don’t believe it exists. Some days are good days; others are not. I do not think there is a force or mysterious driving factor that determines whether things will work out in our favor.

Let me tell you a story.

There was a little girl in elementary school. She was tall for her age but not overtly so. She had many friends and enjoyed playing on the playground after school; swings were her favorite. She believed in the mythical pot of gold at the end of a rainbow and was beware of tricky, sneaky, little leprechauns. She wanted to find a four leaf clover because it was Saint Patrick’s day, and that would guarantee her luck. She spent hours in the patch of grass looking for the mysterious shamrock until she finally found one. She held it up to the sun, an amazed look on her face and knew for sure today would be her lucky day.

I was that little girl and that day was not my lucky day. Saint Patrick’s Day is approaching soon, and for some, that does not mean much. As children, we showed up to school in green, making sure the color was very much noticeable as to put ourselves out of risk of getting pinched. As teenagers, the day may not mean as much as it did when we were little. Does finding the elusive shamrock equal luck to the one that finds it? Does wearing a particular color sock when something good happens to you make the sock lucky? Does getting an A on a test you didn’t study for really represent luck? No. The answer to all of those questions is no.

The point I am making is that you need to make your own luck.

It is true that sometimes things happen to work out in our favor, but it is also true that the mingling of superstitions (like the sock example) tend to make us want to put power into things that truthfully hold no power. I am not trying to be a downer or crush anybody’s dreams, but do not become reliant on this mysterious thing called luck, which, in my opinion, does not exist.

Believing in luck means believing in chance, which is fair, except that everything cannot be up to chance. You need to be able to take initiative and determine your own fate and your own path in life based on the actions that you have taken. If something good happens to you that is great, but don’t you want to believe it’s because of the things that you have done and not some outside, unpredictable force that has apparently worked in your favor?

I believe in the notion that you determine your own course. If you happen to find a $5 bill on the ground, it’s simply because you were at the right place at the right time. Believing so heavily on the concept of luck is dangerous, especially if it gets to the point where you start to believe bad things happen to you because you are cursed with bad luck and good things happen to you because you are lucky.

The stance I take on the luck argument is the “free will/you determine your fate” side. Luck, in essence, sounds great, but it means nothing, it proves nothing and it does not exist. Saint Patrick’s day is near, and all of the stories we’re told about the luck surrounding the holiday is a great tradition. But just know that if you do happen to find a shamrock that day, or any other day for that matter, not much will come of it.