Some folks are just Unlucky, some are Clumsy... and then there's me

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I was constantly beating the odds of bad things happening, in my first 20 years. So much so, that I had the reputation of being the clumsiest person in town. When I was in high school, there was a contest in the town newspaper that described some of my injuries and the circumstances that led to them. The first 50 correct responders to the newspaper office would receive a coupon good for a free sandwich from a local fast food place. All 50 coupons were claimed before an hour had passed from the time the papers hit the shelves/streets

Even so, the sheer amount of things that happened to me were astounding. They couldn't all be from lack of coordination. So my reputation as a 'Jinx' started to circulate, as well

When asked by the newspaper whether she thought I was Unlucky or Clumsy, a good friend's response was, "Hm. Both? Neither? I think a little out of sync with reality is getting closer. And she could definitely tell you if a steel pole to the forehead or a concrete floor to the back of the head hurts more"

By the time Junior year rolled around, I had been designated the keeper of local "against all odds" reputation. When we faced a difficult sports opponent, the coach (of whatever sport) would nearly beg me to at least be at the game... if not keeping stats for them (hey, I was a geek, sue me). A Senior did his science fair project on me, with the topic of Skewed Probability -- his data showed that I didn't meet the average odds of ANYTHING. Sometimes I was on the positive side of this, sometimes the negative. We decided to call this the Bink-Murphy effect. Coincidence seems to happen a lot around me, but there's no telling if it'll be positive coincidence (Bink's Law) or negative coincidence (Murphy's Law). He won a prize for it. Third place in whatever category he put it in, I think

My Senior year, the "Political Correctness" fad was at its height. So, in addition to the Senior Personalities (Most Likely to...) for sixteen seniors, every senior was assigned PC Label. Mine was "Statistically Challenged"

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