What Would You Do if You Won the Powerball Jackpot?

The Powerball jackpot is up to 1.5 billion dollars.

The winner — if there is one — will be announced tonight, Wednesday, January 13 at 10:59 PM ET.

(Just a fun side note: the writers club prompt is due the following day!)

A person is apparently more likely to be attacked by a shark than win this thing, but you know what my grandma says when she isn’t talking about rip tides and leaving the house without a jacket: you can’t get bit by a shark if you don’t go swimming.

Which is why, between episodes of Making a Murderer on Saturday night, my roommate and I went for a dip in search of a Powerball-wheeling bodega.

To say that the city’s energy was palpable sounds cliché, but that night, there really was something in the air beyond hot nuts and subway breath. The streets were abuzz. Lines formed outside unremarkable delis. Offices held team pools and friends loaned their buds cash for tickets (either to be immediately Venmo’d back or with the understanding that they’d get some of the profits) because everyone had a feeling they were going to win.

With our tickets in hand, my roommate and I discussed what we’d buy: apartments and homes and horses and boats, and while I was ruminating about all of the Dries Van Noten I’d own, he made sensible investment plans. We spoke about which charities we’d donate to, which global problems we’d try to solve and listed all the houses we’d give to people we love, just Ellen DeGeneres does. We were red-cheeked and breathless, like we’d been playing tag, and that’s when it hit me: this was adult make-believe. A way to suspend our disbelief without the help of the Internet, books, movies or television.

We didn’t win, and I didn’t buy another ticket for tonight — ten bucks spent on dumb luck was enough. But it was fun. And it made fancy fashion feel like quarter snacks for a second. So whether you bought one or not, just pretend you did:

If you won 1.3 billion dollars, what would you do? What would you buy? What charity(ies) would you give to? Would you keep your job? How would you celebrate? Does everyone get a car?

Would your face look like this???

Gifs are encouraged. So is buying us a drink if you win!

Collage by Emily Zirimis

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