In May 2001, I found a job in New York at the World Trade Center. On September 11, 2001, I arrived at my building at around 8:30 a.m. I was about to go up when I decided to get a coffee first. I went to my favorite coffee place even though it was two blocks east from my office. As I was waiting in line with other office workers, I heard a loud sound. Before I could join the others outside to see what was going on, the first plane had already hit my office building. We stared in disbelief at the black smoke rising above the burning building. I felt lucky to be alive.

    Almost 10 years later, I woke up at 10:00 a.m. on February 21, 2011 and realized that my alarm never went off. I jumped out of bed and went straight to the airport. But by the time I got to the airport, my plane to New Zealand had already taken off. "This is the first holiday I've taken in a year, and I miss my plane. What bad luck!" I thought to myself. The other planes were full so I had to wait till the next day. The next morning, I heard about the earthquake in New Zealand the day before. My bad luck had unexpectedly turned into a good thing.