The harder you work, the luckier you get.

My mom always said, “The harder you work, the luckier you get.” This saying rang especially true in the third grade when my classroom turned reading into a competition. Every time we finished a book, we added a car to our paper train on the wall. It was simple and visual, and I liked that. And I was competitive, and I wanted my train to grow. It gave me something to work toward and made reading feel fun.

When I told my mom about it, she jumped in with me. She helped me find books, took me to the library, and made reading part of our daily routine. We read together a lot, and sometimes I read on my own just to see my train get longer. Book by book, my train kept growing until it wrapped around the classroom. And of course, I won. 

At the time, winning felt like the lucky part. But looking back, that wasn’t the real win. Somewhere along the way, I learned to love reading. The contest ended and the train came down, but I gained something that mattered more and lasted longer. My mom always knew that winning isn’t just luck. It’s something you build, sometimes one book at a time.